Here we go...
Originally Posted by Ken Scott
Even if the RAF had been defeated the fleet would still have been able to defeat any invasion because fast ships at sea could easily manoeuvre and "were pretty safe from air attack".
Tell that to the Prince of Wales & the Repulse.
POW and REPULSE were sunk in Dec 1941, more than a year after the Battle of Britain. They were totally bereft of air cover, saturated by Japanese aircraft that specialised in attacking ships (they'd taken a leaf out of the Royal Navy's book) and
hit by six (possibly eight) torpedoes out of 49 launched. The battleships were able to avoid the other 40+ torpedoes aimed at them.
Interestingly, the first 25 Japanese aircraft dropped 17 x 500 kg bombs and 16 x 250 kg bombs on the battleships
but only achieved one hit with a 250 kg bomb. This started a small fire on the hangar deck of REPULSE. Several high level bombers also straddled the battleships during the later torpedo attacks but, again,
only achieved one hit. This bomb fell amongst the wounded gathered in POW's hangar causing extensive casualties but neither of the two bombs that actually struck the battleships penetrated their armour.
Earlier, nine aircraft had mistaken one of the three escorting destroyers for a battleship. They each dropped their 500 kg armour-piercing bomb but
all nine missed their target. The destroyers went unscathed and rescued the survivors from the battleships but a supporting carrier might have made all the difference, especially as the Japanese bombers had no fighter escort owing to the distances involved.
So how many effective torpedo bombers did the Luftwaffe have in 1940? They'd have needed hundreds to achieve any success, plus other types of aircraft to deal with the scores of MTBs and armed auxiliaries that would have made mincemeat out of any invasion force, most of which would have comprised lumbering barges under tow. Operational German destroyers had been all but wiped out at Narvik and they had few other warships of any description. Think how many resources went into the Allied invasion of Normandy: 5,000 ships and 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel on D-Day alone.
The Ju 87 might have proved useful as a dive bomber against static targets in a relatively benign environment but it was lousy against ships. It wasn't something their pilots were trained for, either. As for high level bombers, the B-17s later showed their ineffectiveness against ships which is why the USN concentrated on TBDs and dive bombers. No PGMs in those days and many of you will know the CEPs of dumb bombs. Throughout the war, the amount of our shipping lost to aerial attack was miniscule in comparison with our losses from U-boats and mines.
I concede that our victory in the Battle of Britain put paid to any German invasion attempt, no matter how disastrous, but I still can't help wondering how things would have turned out if we'd drowned or captured the cream of the Wehrmacht so early in the war.
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