Germany did not lose the Battle of Britain

[Asheshouse]

The German strategic objective of the Battle of Britain was to force Britain out of the war, either by forcing her to sue for peace, or if this did not happen to create conditions in which an invasion could succeed. In this they failed.

A secondary effect of the battle was to significantly degrade the Luftwaffe capability which had a knock on effect in subsequent theatres.

[ElAurens]

I suggest everyone read the book The Most Dangerous Enemy by Stephen Bungay.

The best post war appraisal of the Battle of Britain, by far.

An interesting fact is that the Luftwaffe was sustaining irreplaceable/unacceptable losses during the period before August 1940, but failed to understand so because of the rampant over claiming by the Luftwaffe fighter squadrons at that time. Simply put, the German aircraft industry was not keeping up, while the British aircraft industry ramped up production the entire time.

It was never the "close run" thing that has become the myth of it over time. The Luftwaffe never had a chance in hell of winning.

[K_Freddie]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

.. while the British aircraft industry ramped up production the entire time.

It was never the "close run" thing that has become the myth of it over time. The Luftwaffe never had a chance in hell of winning.

A bit of a misnomer... Dowding's main concern was pilots.. not planes.

Galland explained it clearly in some interviews..
- No focus
- no real co-ordinated plan
- bad fighter tactics
- 'home game' for the Brits
- etc..

He said that the LW was never correctly equiped to fight the UK (overseas).. so they lost from the start... Mein Kampf 'clearly' explains this.

[Crumpp]

Roosevelt could not ignore the 50% of the population who were against involvement, but he did everything he could to assist Britain, short of declaring war. That included the "Lendlease" act, which allowed Britain to take ownership of war armaments without paying for them, the gift of 50 Destroyers, (crucial to the defence of the convoy routes) in exchange for bases in the Caribbean, etc. Without U.S. help, Britain would not have survived.

He did more than just lend moral and material support. American lives were lost defending his policies.

Upon the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939, she joined the Neutrality Patrol, and guarded the Atlantic and Caribbean approaches to the American coast. In March 1941, Reuben James joined the convoy escort force established to promote the safe arrival of materiel to the United Kingdom. This escort force guarded convoys as far as Iceland, after which they became the responsibility of British escorts.

Based at Hvalfjordur, Iceland, she sailed from Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland on 23 October, with four other destroyers to escort eastbound convoy HX-156. At about 05:25 on 31 October, while escorting that convoy, Reuben James was torpedoed by U-552 commanded by Kapitänleutnant Erich Topp near Iceland. Reuben James had positioned herself between an ammunition ship in the convoy and the known position of a "wolfpack", a group of submarines that preyed on Allied shipping. Reuben James was hit forward by a torpedo and her entire bow was blown off when a magazine exploded. The bow sank immediately. The aft section floated for five minutes before going down. Of the 159-man crew, only 44 survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Reu...s_%28DD-245%29

His feelings towards Britain was not popular in the United States and for good reason. Many US citizens looked to the past wars the United States fought with Great Britain over the treatment of our ships and sailors.

Britain's own actions made life difficult for Roosevelt to lend support. It was not until the Japanese attack that the US public really even cared to join England in a fight against Germany.

British policy was to detain US ships and crew as well violate our neutrality. It is interesting to note how arrogant and dismissal the British Admiralty is of United States protest until they really start losing the war.

* February 1, Thursday 1940

President Roosevelt writes First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill, concerning the detention of U.S. merchantmen, and frankly informs him of adverse American reaction to the British policy. "The general feeling is," Roosevelt informs Churchill, "that the net benefit to your people and the French is hardly worth the definite annoyance caused to us.

http://asisbiz.com/il2/US-Navy-History-WWII-1940.html

[proton45]

Their are some people who feel that all of WW2 (not just the BoB) is largely overlooked by the German people (lol)...

p.s. I joke, I kid...because I love.

[BigC208]

The goal was to win air supremacy over the invation area. This goal was not achieved.
Mission acomplished for the RAF.

[MaxGunz]

Brought to you by the people determined to believe that Germany did not lose WWI. That's right, it was a trick.

[Crumpp]

The Republican Party was platform-committed to staying out and fought getting involved to the point of sending aid.

Certainly it was and with good reason. Germany was not violating our sovereignty on a such a wide scale.

http://asisbiz.com/il2/US-Navy-History-WWII-1940.html

The ones making the big money had to be stopped by law in 1942.

IIRC, there was a series of trials and investigations after the war into some of the business practices. In the immediate post war climate, United States citizens were very angry and suspicious at any potential war-profiteering.

the synthesis of aspirin

Everytime I take an aspirin, I think of Bayer....

The 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the Nuremberg Trial on October 27th put the Bayer company in the public spotlight. Bayer played a decisive role in human experiments with deadly outcomes during the Third Reich.

http://www.mega.nu/ampp/bayer.html

In what is the first legal action of its kind, a class action lawsuit has been filed in a U.S. federal court against the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG alleging that the company assisted Joseph Mengele in his gruesome experiments on concentration camp inmates then used the results to develop new products. This is the first Holocaust lawsuit to allege that a company was actively involved in carrying out Nazi war crimes other than the use of concentration camp inmates as slave labor. Kor et al. v. Bayer AG, No. TH99-036-C (SD IN, Feb. 17, 1999).

http://www.propertyandcasualty.com/a...d-NAZI-Do-0001

[MaxGunz]

From "Behind the Vinyl Curtain", DuPont did a deal supplying Ford engines to get the process.