i don’t think so. the british army was weak compared to the german army. they just experienced dunkirk, and lost a lot of equipment. their troops and tanks were overall inferior in quantity and quality compared to german panzer divisions. the british were also inferior in ground forces doctrine in 1940. the enlgish weren’t fully mobilized.
the main threats were the RAF and the royal navy. but in 1940, u-boat wolf-packs were quite strong in the atlantic. while german medium bombers suffered during the battle of britain, the luftwaffe was far from being dominated. b of b was called off because if the losses sustained over england was continued, operation barborossa would’ve suffered.
by any means, the conquest of britain would be much less audacious then conquering the soviet union.
Yes but the RAF could easily bust up tanks, spot U-Boats for the Royal Navy to take out and with the Royal Navy patrolling the English Channel, Germany probably wouldn’t have a chance. You don’t just need ground forces to take out other ground forces :?
Even in the event of complete air supremacy, and new ground-attack aircraft in 1944 during the normandy battles, out of the 1400 german tanks lost, little more than 100 were lost through air attack from both the USAF and the RAF. in comparison, 1800 allied fighter-bombers were lost to mostly anti-air defenses.
IE, even in the great armor battle of kursk, 5.7% of german tank losses were confirmed by soviet ground attack aircraft. (glantz, battle of kursk)
any losses of german tanks once they reached the mainland would be very,very minimal, especially considering the archment of spitfires back then.
your assuming that the RAF has total air supremacy when it didn’t have it in 1940. britain stood alone, remember? the german airforce was much larger and had higher quality (read:only fighter) pilots back then.
also, germany’s medium bomber force was the strongest tactical bombing force in the world-
the royal navy would be attacked constantly by hordes of stukas, heinkels, etc., plus the u-boat fleet with mr.bismarck.
remember, the battle of britain was won mainly because of radar and the stupid moves by goering to attack british installations deep inside britain without fighter escort. (and limited range)
also, heavy german bomber losses from ack acks during the blitz, which was a foolish waste of bombers and crews.
british fighters waited until the 109s left the bombers and then attacked the defenseless heinkels.
in the event of sea lion, german airpower would be much heavily concentrated in the invasion zone and would not be dispersed like that.
The Bismark wasn’t launched until after the Battle of Britain period, and only one major unit has ever been sank by submarines while under their own power - the Belgrano in the Falklands war. The Luftwaffe didn’t have a bomb that could penetrate the deck armour of the British heavy ships.
By the time the germans had attacked Stalingrad and other points of Russia there for forces weren’t significant enough, and the russians using scorched earth didn’t help either.
The germans did attack some places that were heavly defended that wasn’t neccasary.
My opinion is that they should of found a straight way to get to Moscow (мосва) and take the heart of Russia, but even though that would of been quite a near impossible struggle.
umm, moscow was certainly a target, folks. german troops saw the towers of the kremlin. its just that moscow’s defense was insanely thick.
the russian winter was demoralizing troops, damageing transporation, tanks, freezing weapons.
my grandfather told me how once they got there it was so cold that their mg34s , mp40s, and k98s froze and wouldn’t work. even if they urinated on their weapons , they would freeze again in one or two minutes.
artillery support, air support became nil. guns froze up.
It was even worse for the non-motorized troops. they had thin wool coats and their tunics, nothing else. even seizing clothes form the populace wasn’t enough.
in the end, all my grandfather and his comardes could do was to assault/defend enemy positions with spades and hand grenades… when hundreds of thousands of russians attacked with their warm coats and automatics…
It was even worse for the non-motorized troops. they had thin wool coats and their tunics, nothing else. even seizing clothes form the populace wasn’t enough.
Really, why would they do this? Surely the poor civillians would freeze?
Winter for german soldiers surly been worst then soviets ,winter is reason for germans could take moscow ,spviets defend your capital but winter help him a lot ,better been killed in fight then beem freezed.
russian civilians had something called a house and a fireplace.
german foot sloggers had the cold, wet ground.[/quote]
Well hosenfield you must know then soviets civillians been poor and they dont have clothhes and food for yourself ,i speak true germans steel from them in war no one want to go and collest wood for fire ,and they freeze so like a germans .
Nice Information HosenField ,
I was watching a discovery show a couple of weeks ago where a group of russian soldiers that were surrounded by the germans but hiding secretly under a snowy bunker…and it became so cold that the bullets all froze and the guns wouldn’t move, eventually only a small group of Germans found them when there were 3 times more Russians, the Russians couldn’t move there guns and were immediatly Gunned Down by the Germans.
russian civilians had something called a house and a fireplace.
german foot sloggers had the cold, wet ground.[/quote]
Well hosenfield you must know then soviets civillians been poor and they dont have clothhes and food for yourself ,i speak true germans steel from them in war no one want to go and collest wood for fire ,and they freeze so like a germans .[/quote]
The Russians scavenged German bodies and took their MP40’s and MP44’s, who knows that else they scavenged for :twisted:
It shows the true nature of the War that the German soldiers had no regard for Russian civillians that they even took the clothes from the population. probably kicked them out of their houses too no doubt.
Ah the Nazis, makes you wonder just what they were about eh!
What, they stripped the S-Koreans naked and stole their houses, please enlighten me with the proof of this.[/quote]
no, i did not say “stripp naked” and the germans didn’t strip the russians naked either. if you read any korean war memoir or just basic korean war history, the gear worn by the americans was very inadequate for the weather. like the russians, the chinese were actually better dressed.
Is no need to be sarcastic, Firefly!
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