| Battle of Britain - could the Germans have ever won it ?
One of the oft made remarks is that the British would have lost the Battele of Britain if the Germans had persisted in attacking the RAF airfields in Southern and particularly South-Eastern England in the summer of 1940......
Why would they failed to beat the RAF (unless some really serious mistakes were made by the RAF and their political leaders) ?
If you think about it, the RAF only ever committted some 50% or even less of Fighter Command to the battel of S-E England at any one time. The rest were training, patrolling and refitting in comparative safety to the north and west of the main battlefield. Dowding's policy of rotation of squadrons through the battlefield and later his feeding forward of pilots meant that, while the whole of the operational Lufwaffe was committed to the fight (with consequent fatigue) there was apool of comparatively fresh pilots available to the RAF to use as replacements.
Added to this was the adapability of the RAF in picking and countering new tactics used by the Luftwaffe as the battle went on, as well as the superb RDF reporting and control system, meant that the Luftwaffe was always in danger of being snookered.
If the worst came to the worst, Dowding could (and in fact did) move the squadrons back from the channel coast, lengthening the range for the Lufwffe to engage them in combat (and consaquently lessening their combat time). These airfields could be maintained as forward landing grounds for rest, refuel and re-arm during daylight hours.
Of more danger to the RAF was the loss of CH RDF stations but redundancy as well as a failure by the Luftwaffe to recognise how these fitted into the system (or indeed to recognise that the system even existed) meant that they were never seriously interdicted.
If the RAF had been forced into defending the Channel cast by their political masters or if the Luftwaffe attempted and had been able to remove the RDF stations and their control/reporting system, then the RAF would have been in a severe bind.
As it was, even if the RAF had withdrawn north of London (except for defence of Southhampton/Portsmouth) while still using southerly LGs and engaging the Luftwaffe south of London, then the battle would have lasted into winter. It would have allowed the RAF to recuperate and start to receive the first of the EATS pilots and therby stand ready again for a renewed onslaught.
But then Hitler was always looking east.....
Cheers
Edward |