If the Germans had invaded Britain during WW2 what would the result have been.

[Thunder Bolt]

For Sale: French rifle. Never fired. Dropped once.

Maybe you should drive around France & read their war memorials from the First World War. Even in the smallest villages, there are many names.
You also do a great disservice to the Resistance.
It's easy for us to point the finger when we don't share a border with another European country. The Channel has helped us resist any invasion since 1066.

 

[Triggaaar]

Maybe you should drive around France & read their war memorials from the First World War. Even in the smallest villages, there are many names.
You also do a great disservice to the Resistance.

He was joking. We're allowed to joke, right?

 

[Nibble]

Maybe you should drive around France & read their war memorials from the First World War. Even in the smallest villages, there are many names.
You also do a great disservice to the Resistance.
It's easy for us to point the finger when we don't share a border with another European country. The Channel has helped us resist any invasion since 1066.

I have done so. I have a large degree of respect for all who fought. However, I'm not an uptight **** so also happy to poke a bit of harmless fun at the Frenchies. I'll live with it.

 

[Triggaaar]

Despite the superiority of the Royal Navy and RAF we still managed to allow two German battle cruisers to escape unhindered from French ports and sail up the Channel to safety, yet their movement was well anticipated.

A couple of cruisers is nothing compared to an entire invasion fleet. The Germans needed fair weather to cross, and air or sea opposition would have decimated a slow moving fleet.

Among the embarrassing deficiencies was a lack of proper and effective inter-service communication and secondly the response times were appallingly slow.

We'd have seen an invasion fleet being prepared, and would have had plenty of time to attack it. It's not the same as when a bomber formation is flying over the channel, and you don't get much notice.

Finally we lacked suitable aircraft to attack a surface fleet.

We weren't under threat of invasion by destroyers, they would have been crappy landing craft that could have been destroyed by a Hurricane.

I feel that we would have prevailed but suspect the outcome would have been much closer than some suggest.

What evidence is there to suggest it would have been close? They didn't get close to having air superiority, they did nothing to stop our Navy, they didn't even manage to build the landing craft they needed for the invasion.

If the Germans had gained a foothold in the South East

That's just it though - it's that bit they had no chance of achieving.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

They were very well trained, very well equipped, very well led, right from junior officer to general staff level, and for the most part extremely well motivated.

Yes and no, many experts believe Germany lost the war on the Russian front because they were so arrogant that their lightening war would succeed regardless. So much so they didn't even equip their army on the Eastern front with proper winter equipment because they thought they would have won by the time the snow set in. In reality, if they had provided the proper equipment, many experts believe Russia would have been defeated.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

first two would have sorted them
but poor old Freddy (and I love him to bits) would never have got here he came from Zanzibar and I wish I could have got my hands on his stamps and postal history of that place, along with Heir Hitlers

I would've been a 2 year old P.O.W. if they invaded Brighton....BTW I did manage to get Nazi stamps in a small job lot. The only real soldiers I saw apart from the British were Canadians before they were slaughtered at Dieppe...two of them took me ice skating,first time I had been out anywhere. Two days later saw their ships and Barges leave Newhaven. Rest in Peace guys...so proud of you.

 

[Seagull on the wing]

Maybe you should drive around France & read their war memorials from the First World War. Even in the smallest villages, there are many names.
You also do a great disservice to the Resistance.
It's easy for us to point the finger when we don't share a border with another European country. The Channel has helped us resist any invasion since 1066.

Good post...The French had their collaborators but their Resistance were invaluable to us,not only in sabotage but in getting pilots back to England via Spain and Switzerland.

 

[Husty]

We really to move on from WW2 as country. It's a little bit sad.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

A couple of cruisers is nothing compared to an entire invasion fleet. The Germans needed fair weather to cross, and air or sea opposition would have decimated a slow moving fleet.

We'd have seen an invasion fleet being prepared, and would have had plenty of time to attack it. It's not the same as when a bomber formation is flying over the channel, and you don't get much notice.

We weren't under threat of invasion by destroyers, they would have been crappy landing craft that could have been destroyed by a Hurricane.

What evidence is there to suggest it would have been close? They didn't get close to having air superiority, they did nothing to stop our Navy, they didn't even manage to build the landing craft they needed for the invasion.

That's just it though - it's that bit they had no chance of achieving.

I acknowledge your points - but I merely suggest it might not have been a forgone conclusion. The odds were definitely in our favour - but in the first couple of years of WW2 we managed to cock up far too many straightforward situations that were conveniently glossed over. My example of the two battle cruisers being allowed to escape unscathed despite knowing they would be making a run for it was negligent and later cost us dearly. We enjoyed air and naval supremacy at that time but might as well have sat on our hands. There was a serious lack of joined up thinking, technology, equipment and inter service rivalry was allowed to compromise any potential attack whilst the Germans sailed up the channel and into the N. Sea.

At that time the Germans had a lot of success with E-Boats causing embarrassing incidents in the Channel, plus I'm sure they would have concentrated their U-boats to fend off the RN and brought the concentrated might of the Luftwaffe to protect an invasion fleet. However I do strongly agree their weakness was a lack of proper landing craft. Improvising river and coastal barges was a recipe for trouble a) from the weather b) offloading them and that's before c) any intervention by our forces.

The Allies also supposedly enjoyed air superiority from 1944 onward but curiously this didn't prevent the Luftwaffe mounting raids on RAF bases as late as March 1945, plus there were still significant casualties from V1 and V2 rockets, only a few weeks before the end of the war. Ok these events were insignificant and didn't change the final outcome but illustrate that air and sea superiority do not guarantee complete immunity from attack.

BTW: we're allowed to have different views - right?

 

[User removed 4]

Maybe you should drive around France & read their war memorials from the First World War. Even in the smallest villages, there are many names.
You also do a great disservice to the Resistance.
It's easy for us to point the finger when we don't share a border with another European country. The Channel has helped us resist any invasion since 1066.

do they fly the French flag at these memorials, its a white cross on a white background isn't it ?

 

[Triggaaar]

At that time the Germans had a lot of success with E-Boats causing embarrassing incidents in the Channel, plus I'm sure they would have concentrated their U-boats to fend off the RN and brought the concentrated might of the Luftwaffe to protect an invasion fleet.

I think the channel is a bit shallow for U boats, and sinking fast moving cruisers and destroyers is not as easy as slow merchant ships. I guess they'd have had some success, but I don't think that would be enough to protect their troops. And likewise with the Luftwaffe - while our planes attacked the landing craft, they'd have shot down some of our planes, but that wouldn't be enough to help the troops below. Just like our merchant ships crossing the Atlantic, it's much harder to defend a defenseless sea vessel than it is to attack it.

Anyone know how long it would have taken their boats to get across? Most were to be towed by tugs, and those that had power could only do about 6 knots. Only Calais to Folkestone was a short distance, the rest had to go a lot further.

Just found this: http://www.johndclare.net/wwii6_sealion.htm#part3 - no idea how accurate it is
"The barges were mainly those designed for use on the Rhine, with a shallow freeboard. They sink in anything above Sea State 2. The wash from a fast-moving destroyer would swamp and sink the barge"

"The basic unit was a tug towing two barges, and travelling at 2-3 knots, in the Channel, which has tides of 5 knots. Given that the distance that the far left of the invasion had to cross, a minimum of 85 miles, the poor bloody soldiers would be wallowing for a minimum of 30 hours in an open boat, and expected to carry out an opposed amphibious landing at the end of it."

BTW: we're allowed to have different views - right?

Of course. We're also allowed to change our mind in view of overwhelming evidence

I'm only going on what I've read, and if there's evidence to show things were different, I'll alter my perspective. But every modern analysis I see comes to roughly the same conclusion - they were nowhere near having any hope whatsoever. Everything seems to be against them.

 

[User removed 4]

Good post...The French had their collaborators but their Resistance were invaluable to us,not only in sabotage but in getting pilots back to England via Spain and Switzerland.

I dont know about Spain but they were interned in Switzerland for the duration of the war.

 

[glasfryn]

I would've been a 2 year old P.O.W. if they invaded Brighton....BTW I did manage to get Nazi stamps in a small job lot. The only real soldiers I saw apart from the British were Canadians before they were slaughtered at Dieppe...two of them took me ice skating,first time I had been out anywhere. Two days later saw their ships and Barges leave Newhaven. Rest in Peace guys...so proud of you.

absolutely right people forget the commonwealth soldiers of both wars, and even some from far away places that were not even involved in the wars that fought for freedom alongside the alies, I could be corrected but I am sure there was a Brazilian pilot who fought alongside our pilots in the RAF

 

[User removed 4]

We really to move on from WW2 as country. It's a little bit sad.

Jesus wept is there no limit to your bellend statements ? It was a seismic event for this country which helped to shape social attitudes after the war, and had an unprecedented effect on the lives of the civil population during it.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

We really to move on from WW2 as country. It's a little bit sad.

What an utter moronic statement. Firstly millions dies ensuring our freedom so for that alone we need to remember it. Then there is the millions who were murdered. Finally, they say history repeats itself and it's idiot humans like you that allow it by suggesting we don't remember and learn lessons from WW2.

I suggest you consider the following before making such a stupid comment again :

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis." - Dante Alighieri

 

[Norman Potting]

do they fly the French flag at these memorials, its a white cross on a white background isn't it ?

Don't think so but I have noticed when on holiday in the Vendee region that there area several memorials, carefully maintained and with appropriate Union Jack/Stars and Strips flying, that I beleve are provided as a mark of respect for aircrews who perished whilst trying to free their country.