WW1 Paved the Way for the Battle of Britain.

[Kurfürst]

Originally Posted by JimmyBlonde

The Luftwaffe was getting its arse handed to it in June 1940 by the AASF and continental air forces.

Huh...? Wake up..

Even the Polish Airforce did remarkably well against it.

"For a historical evaluation the only really important fact is that from the third day of the day of the battle on the Polish air opponent was non-existent, no Polish air forces existed which could have intefered even only slightly in ground operations. All further developments in the air situations in Poland resulted from this circumstance. For the Luftwaffe, this circumstance also had the result that all German air missions from the third day of battle on could be flown under conditions equivalent towith those of peacetime."

From: The Luftwaffe in the Polish Campaign in 1939, by General der Flieger Wilhelm Speidel.

[ElAurens]

The fact remains that the Luftwaffe lost a lot of aircraft, both in Poland and in the Battle of France, that seriously degraded their abilities.

Add the losses between the time of Dunkirk and the "start" of the BoB in August and it is clear that the Luftwaffe could not sustain a campaign to "take" Great Britain. It's laugable to think that they could.

The mistakes made by Hitler, Goering and the OKL only added to the issue.

The Luftwaffe was a very young service. There was no depth of experience in their officer corps, unlike the RAF, which is of course the world's oldest independent air force.

Like most of the German High Command, they suffered from strategic blindness. Too concerned with tactics and not enough with logistics.

[JimmyBlonde]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

From: The Luftwaffe in the Polish Campaign in 1939, by General der Flieger Wilhelm Speidel.

Please excuse my my derision but I'd be about as apt to believe Herr Spiedels' assessment of the facts as I would the 1940 Telegraphs' claims for RAF aerial victories.

If you're going to cite a source then at least find one who doesn't have a vested interest in the issue and doesn't stem from one of the most notoriously censored and propagandist regimes to have ever existed.

I'm not saying that the Luftwaffe was laughable, just pointing out that they didn't enjoy the superiority which they are often misconceived as having. They were fortunate in being spared a prolonged campaign by some very poor French leadership and some very excellent Wehrmacht soldiering. The Luftwaffe fared quite indifferently considering their advantages and the facts reflect this if you care to examine them.

That said I'm out of this topic, check out the book I posted if you would like to read about some exceptional German airmanship.

[Sternjaeger II]

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

And yet, the RAF still only avoided defeat in BoB owing to faulty German strategy.

+1

[winny]

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

And yet, the RAF still only avoided defeat in BoB owing to faulty German strategy.

Surley you mean the Germans avoided winning because they f'd it up..
On all levels.
(It's usually what happens when the lunatics take over the assylum)

I'm forever gratefull to German WWII 'intelligence'

Could we please stick to topic instead of country bashing of any sort?

[MB_Avro_UK]

Back on topic....

British WW1 squadrons operated from such airfields as Biggin Hill and Manston.

I own an original Log Book from a Home Defence pilot. He flew with 50 Squadron 'C' Flight. On 22nd August 1917 he wrote in his Log Book that whilst on patrol with his Be12 Flight, they attacked a formation of Gotha bombers. He fired over 70 rounds. He also flew many anti-Zeppelin night patrols.

Interestingly, Winston Churchill was responsible for the defences at an early stage.

There's a recently discovered Royal Flying Corps airfield in Essex on the approach to London. This was home to 37 Squadron whose role was the defence of London. They aided in the destruction of a Zeppelin.

The airfield is known as Stow Maries and I've been there several times.

http://www.stowmaries.com/


Best Regards,
MB_Avro.

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

And yet, the RAF still only avoided defeat in BoB owing to faulty German strategy.

Poppycock, balderdash and not to say perfect twaddle old bean.

'In the 1966 world cup final, England still only avoided defeat owing to faulty German strategy'

'still only avoided defeat' - you mean 'won' yes?

Here we go again. 'The Luftwaffe were great, the Brits were crap and didn't really win, the Germans just had more important things on the agenda and decided to retire from the game'.

German Strategy is only one factor amongst many.

The Luftwaffe got their arses kicked in goodstyle.

Game over.

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

And yet, the RAF still only avoided defeat in BoB owing to faulty German strategy.

lol The RAF had around 800 pilots that went up to meet every raid with out fail why? because they knew that the rest of the war hinged on that battle, if hitler had gained control of the British Isles it would have been a different outcome in the war of this im sure.
The RAF won because of sheer tenacity and bloody-mindedness of its pilots and pilots of the occupied countries that flew for the RAF, and the radar system that been set up was second to non and designed make the full use of its mimimal resources.
Failure in german strategy was just an example of Goerings pompus ignorance about his advensaries and his understanding of supply issues effecting the Luft at that time.

[baronWastelan]

I'm surprised to see people on here discussing 'Battle of Britain' as though it was part of a campaign to put Britain under Nazi control. I've not seen any evidence that Hitler had any real desire or plan to land Wehrmacht units in England. In fact Hitler's only concern about the British in 1940 after June was to keep them at bay just long enough to conclude the campaign in Russia which he expected to finish in the autumn of 1941.