MattGrey - If you have read the accounts of Stuka successes during their relentless raids off Dunkirk and during the evacuation of Crete, often over days at a time, you will know that their attacks failed far more often than they succeeded, even against ships bereft of air cover. The destroyer HMS
Kipling survived 89 bombs aimed at her off Crete.
One particular raid by ten Stukas (
or was it Ju 88s?) may well have sunk the overloaded minesweeper HMS
Skipjack as she pulled away from the beaches at Dunkirk but have you also read
how many of our ships they would have needed to put out of action, where air cover was available and over a relatively short period, to have enabled a successful German invasion attempt?
Did the Luftwaffe sink enough of our ships to prevent the evacuation of 330,000 men from the beaches at Dunkirk over the course of a week or more? No.
Did the Luftwaffe sink enough of our ships in May 1941 to prevent the evacuation of 16,000 troops from Crete? No.
Would the Luftwaffe have sunk enough of our ships to prevent them from destroying a German invasion attempt during the first critical days? I think not.