renrich
Chief Master Sergeant
Udet, In an earlier post I wrote that the sinking of the Repulse and Prince of Wales off Malaya and for that matter the Hermes and Cornwall in the Indian Ocean is probably not comparable to a situation that would obtain during a cross channel invasion in 1942 UNLESS the Germans achieved COMPLETE air superiority like the allies did in 1944. Off Malaya and in the Indian Ocean the Japanese had no air opposition whatsoever and were free to make runs at their leisure except for not very effective triple A because of the abominable RN fire control system. The Japanese at that time also had the finest antishipping bombing and torpedo units in the world. With absolutely no background in amphibious operations I cannot imagine how the Germans could have been successful in an invasion of England. I still wonder why did not the KM sweep down the channel and stop the evacuation at Dunkirk if they were as battleworthy as represented in this discussion. Another advantage the British would have had is better fore knowledge of the weather(since the weather comes from the west) Even without Ultra(which they would have had) Britain would have known about the invasion at least generally as it was impossible to hide that amount of concentration of troops not to mention the French underground spying on and transmitting the information. With an invasion imminent the USN would have been present in some kind of force. Remember, the invasion of North Africa was slated for November 1942. If an invasion of England seemed imminent do you think for one minute the allies would not have shifted the Torch forces to England?