The Battle of Britain Was The First Defeat For The German Luftwaffe.

[Al Schlageter]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

Not that I disagree with the idea that air superiority , but the Dunkirk record of bombers vs ships is a bit misleading, the bombers concentrated most of the time on the beaches (with dense concentration of troops) and the twon, and not ton the ships themselves. AFAIK the ships only received their attention in the last couple of days, and there were far more than just '4 destroyers' sunk.

It was the number of RN destroyers sunk by air attack, but two more were sunk by a Schnellboot and a U-boot, three on the the 29 May and another three on the 1 June. The French also lost a destoyer to air attack on the 1st, and two others to mine/S-boot in the previous days. However, 19 other destroyers were damaged and more or less rendered inservicable in a matter of days and about 200 smaller seacraft was also sunk.

RN
* Grafton, sunk by U-62 on 29 May;
* Grenade, sunk by air attack off the east pier at Dunkirk on 29 May;
* Wakeful, sunk by a torpedo from the Schnellboot (E-boat) S-30 on 29 May;
* Basilisk, Havant and Keith, sunk by air attack off the beaches on 1 June.

French Navy
* Bourrasque, mined off Nieuport on 30 May;
* Sirocco, sunk by the Schnellboote S-23 and S-26 on 31 May;
* Le Foudroyant, sunk by air attack off the beaches on 1 June.

sunk out of 39 Destroyers participating.

It would appear that none were lost on the open sea to air attack.