Britain Alone

  

Home Guard 

Office workers, truck drivers, bricklayers.  

All able men called to duty.  No kids.

The war suddenly becomes one of 

defending your own home.

Royal Navy on station.

So long as there are British planes flying over

the Channel there will be ships of the Royal Navy

 sending Hitler's triumphant army into the drink.

Guaranteed.

Democracy's last stand in Europe.

The first desperate weeks of June was a time of 

improvisation by the British army.  Make do with

what you have to protect England from invading

Nazis.  With time the army becomes more mobile,

more efficient in their plans of crushing a German

assault on the beach.  Churchill and his generals

know Germany's forces have no idea what it takes 

to succeed in an amphibious landing.  If Hitler is

reckless enough to try a Channel invasion, 

Churchill is confident of victory.

Hitler's inner circle.

Generals close enough to Hitler to know his plans

for Britain's defeat have concluded the exercise

is a bluff.  Germany does not have the fleet of 

vessels it would take to ferry and supply a large

invasion army.  In a couple months the weather

will turn bad.  There isn't time to train the troops 

to execute this complex and risky assault.

So it turns out the Luftwaffe, Hitler's air force,

is the only tool available to force his will upon

Churchill and England.

Dowding's state of the art System.

The Germans knew of radar.  They just didn't appreciate

how decisive its use could be.  Why would they?

Their plans were aggressive - all about taking land

from others.  Radar has to do with defense.

Here's how Dowding's system dealt with a typical

scenario.  

Once a German bomber is detected by radar 

it has twenty minutes to make it to its target.

An RAF fighter then has sixteen minutes to

intercept the raiding party.

That leaves four minutes for the people

manning this defense system to decide the

 proper response for the attack.

Spitfire

As good as anything the German's had, meaning

the Messerschmidt 109.  They mixed it up daily 

over the Channel and across the southern English

countryside.  During the course of the Battle of Britain

there were about twenty-five Luftwaffe aircraft falling

out of the sky each day onto the rural landscape.

It made for poor morale among Luftwaffe flyers.

* * * * *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER  EASY

    

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Sea Lion

  

English Channel.

The Channel is like a castle's moat, preventing the

ravaging of England by invading armies - a cataclysm 

periodically experienced by other European nations.

Napoleon marched his army a thousand plus miles

from Paris to Moscow but he dared not attempt 

crossing a twenty mile channel.

Assault on Britain.

Hitler's generals figured they'd need 13 divisions,

about ninety thousand troops, in the first wave.

Another two hundred thousand troops would soon

follow.  This would include 3 armored divisions.

Tanks.

Britain could muster maybe 6 divisions total 

to meet the assault if this were June, following 

Dunkirk.  Were the attack made in October

the number of British defenders would double.

River Barges.

Hitler gave his army a month, until mid-August,

to prepare for Sea Lion, his Channel invasion.

Germany's rivers and canals were being stripped

of their barges in order to ferry troops from French

ports to English shores.  Normally, the barges

safely sailed calm waters.  Now they may venture

onto rough seas, loaded with troops and military

hardware.  RAF pilots routinely sink and damage a

number of these invasion craft gathering in places

like Calais.

Kriegsmarine doesn't share in glory.

The German Navy read about the Battle of France

in the newspapers like everyone else.

The greatest victory in German military history and

Grand Admiral Raeder is simply a bystander.

Half his surface fleet is off the coast of Norway

sitting on the ocean's bottom.

Raeder tells Hitler, his Navy cannot protect German

troops crossing the Channel from the Royal Navy.

Hitler's go to guy.

Hermann Goering.  Reich Marshall.  

A six star general who designs his own uniform.

A World War I fighter pilot ace.  Hitler's oldest

Nazi friend.  They've been together since before

the '23 Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.  Goering

took a bullet in the pelvis.  Crazy times.

He's been fighting opioid addiction ever since. 

Now Goering is Air Minister and he tells Hitler

there will be no need for an invasion.

His Luftwaffe will have the Brits begging 

for peace.

Ace up the sleeve.

Dowding's secret weapon.  Radar.

Mounted atop a three hundred foot tower

these powerful beams detect German planes

taking off anywhere along the Channel's

French coastline.  You also get an idea where

the planes are headed and how many there are.

It's a real force multiplier.  No more wasting

aircraft and pilot time on long patrols.

And you can efficiently allocate your fighter 

strength to match the enemy threat.

Here's the best news yet.

The Germans don't yet know anything about it.

Brilliant.

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER EASY

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Luftwaffe

  

 Stuka.

The Royal Navy was great because Britain was 

a seafaring nation overseeing a global empire.

German perspective was of a country squeezed 

between the Russian colossus and Napoleonic

France.  They revered their army.

It was only natural the German air force, 

the Luftwaffe, was designed to serve the 

army in its moment of need. 

 Bombers support the Army.

Twin engine bombers fly short distances to their target:

enemy front lines and nearby airbases.  So the Heinkel

here can carry 2.200 pounds of bombs up to 600 miles

to their destination, drop their payload and return home.

Their objectives are all military - with tactical goals.

Compare this with an American B-17 - a four engine

bomber that carries 6,000 pounds of bombs over a

thousand miles to destroy factories and urban 

infrastructure.  These are civilian targets that

give vital support to the opposing military.

The objective is strategic.

 Defense was an afterthought.

German gunners don't scare anyone using 

these contraptions for protection.  Look at this guy.

He's crunched in a space that barely allows him

to move his elbows.  His thirty caliber machine gun

has little clout and his field of fire is small.  On top

of this he will probably never see you coming anyway

because his vision is so obstructed and, more likely,

the fighter has chosen to attack at a point where 

you are not.  These bombers desperately

needed fighter escort.

 Unacceptable losses.

The British tactic was to break through German 

fighter protection to get to the lumbering bombers.

The fighter action between RAF Spitfires and 

German Messerschmitt's was pretty much fought

to a draw.  It was the steady loss of bomber crews

that proved truly unacceptable.

Short range.

The Messerschmitt Me 109 was the world's best

fighter plane in 1940.  It had a slim advantage over

the Spitfire plus German pilots used better tactics

when dogfighting.  The price for this superior 

performance was the plane's woefully short range.

If your bombing mission took you very far into the

English countryside, good luck.

Your fighter escort is headed home

or else they run out of fuel.

 Blinded by vengeance .

Despite these Luftwaffe weaknesses the German's

still held the advantage.  They had the numbers to

eventually overwhelm British resources.

Britain's back was against the wall.  But then,

once again, a decision made by Hitler gave 

Churchill a reprieve.  The Fuhrer wanted to 

terrorize London into submission and, instead

threw the RAF a lifeline. 

* * * * * 

©  Tom Taylor

OVER EASY

coldValentine

Dunkirk

  

The miracle of Dunkirk was that Hitler passed

on the opportunity to destroy the British army.

He wanted Britain off the continent but he didn't 

need Yankee imperialists and Japanese warlords

inheriting for free the sprawling British Empire.

The dagger at Britain's throat.

After the humiliating drubbing Nazi forces delivered 

to the Brits, Hitler believed London would quickly

agree to his offer for peace demands.

First, he'd take control of the western Mediterranean

with England giving him Gibraltar.  A present of

British oilfields in Iran and Iraq would give Germany

much needed energy independence.

This, too, would be part of any deal guaranteeing

Britain's safety.

Churchill calls Hitler's bluff.

With his troops from Dunkirk home safely

Churchill drew his line in the sand:

There will be no negotiations with Hitler.

If he wants anything from us he's going

to have to come and get it himself.

The Few.

An invasion of Britain requires the German 

Luftwaffe to have control of the air.  

Transporting ten German divisions across 

the channel to England's shores requires

an air force that can hold off the mighty 

Royal Navy.  The Royal Air Force, though,

must first be destroyed.

Air Minister Dowding

Churchill wants more fighters sent to France.

Dowding say, No.  It's a losing cause.

The Royal Navy wants the RAF to defend 

shipping in the English Channel.

Once again, Dowding says no.  

Take the train.

 

Luftwaffe bombers headed for England.

England's survival depends upon fighters fending off

an overwhelming number of Nazi warplanes

with precious few pilots of their own.

This is the challenge that takes up all of 

Air Minister Hugh Dowding's time.

And he thinks he has it figured out.

* * * * *

©  Tom Taylor

OVER EASY

coldValentine

good morning jack

  

now our fate lies with victory in the air

Cities are now the front line.

 

Logic, based on a presumption, makes it so.

Hitler made no plans to invade England.

His mind had already turned to Russia.

They alone stood in the way of German greatness.

Britain was militarily finished.

Churchill would come to realize this. 

* * * * *

Disposition of Forces / 10 July 1940

The challenge for Britain is to focus your air defense 

to meet the attack of enemy bombers no matter the direction.

This approach requires being able to see over the horizon

to detect a pending attack, determine the air fleet's size and

its intended direction.  

Radar will neutralize the Luftwaffe's numerical superiority.

The RAF will not be required to broadly disperse its fighters.

The air force will be saved the costly expense of constant patrols

by RAF fighters to provide the nation's watchtowers.  An efficient

management of radar information enables the RAF to concentrate

its attack on a fleet of bombers using aircraft from various bases.

Map Legend

 

As good as it gets in 1940 

but its short range give opposing

RAF pilots a lethal shot at

plodding German bombers.

M E S S E R S C H M I T T

s p e e d                                348 mph

r a n g e                                410 miles

g u n s                                    2 x 20 mm cannon

CANNON PROJECTILES EXPLODE 

                                               2 x 7.92 mm mg

MG - MACHINE GUN

 

Fighter protection for German planes bombing Britain

was limited to the short range of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.

 

Hugh Dowding

RAF COMMANDER

Designed the British air defense

fully appreciating the decisive role

radar would need to play in

preventing the RAF from being 

overwhelmed by German numbers.

German Heinkel He 111s fly low over the Channel

in attempt to evade British detection.

A German bomber already showing its age

by the time of the Battle of Britain.  Without the Bf-109

this Heinkel would be a sitting duck in an RAF attack

because its own defensive field of fire is too easily evaded.

H E I N K E L

s p e e d                                200 mph

r a n g e                                1,224 miles

p a y l o a d                            4,410 lb

c r e w                                    4 - 5

a r m a m e n t                        6 - 7   7.92mm MG 

RAF pilots came from across the British Commonwealth.

RAF losses were too great to rely solely on England for pilots.

But even with a reliable source of qualified recruits it still

takes a year to fashion them into fighter pilots.  Too often,

rookie replacements were expected to match wits with an

experienced Messerschmitt pilot.  RAF generals were given

no choice but to throw any flier available into the fiery mix.

Rugged and likable by those who flew it

the Hawker Hurricane was still a transitional fighter,

still constructed in part with cloth and wood,

it was better suited to attacking bombers

than taking on a Messerschmitt one on one.

H A W K E R

s p e e d                            324 mph

r a n g e                           600 miles

a r m a m e n t                8 x .303 in. MG / 4 each wing

 

The Spitfire was the equal of the Bf 109.  

S U P E R M A R I N E

s p e e d                        355 mph

r a n g e                        575 miles

a r m a m e n t              8 x .303 in. MG

 

T A C T I C S

 

the one clear advantage German pilots

had over their RAF counterparts.

Luftwaffe pilots flew in pairs with one

always assigned the role of wingman -

making sure no one pounces on you

from out of nowhere.  The British,

on the other hand flew in groups of three.

The weakness here was that there was 

always one plane set up for a relatively

easy blindside kill.

London burns.  

The RAF is a punch-drunk fighter set up for 

a knock-out blow.  Instead, Hitler suddenly

turns his attention away from destroying the RAF.

It's taking too long.  Time to pillage the village

of one's enemy.  This switch to the strategic strategy

of bombing cities gives the RAF a desperately 

needed respite.  Their fliers find time for needed rest.

Bombed air bases are repaired and the nation's

stock of fighter aircraft are replenished.

The Brits fight on with steeled will.

The Americans take notice.

A grainy image from a Spitfire gunsight 

records the final moments of a German bomber

and its four members on board.  

The Spitfire riddles its target

with .30 caliber rounds coming from eight 

machine guns, four in each wing.  All that is left

for this crew is riding this nine ton piece of machinery

to its gravity induced fate.

Invasion barges collect in harbors along the English Channel.

what it's all about

The Luftwaffe needs control of the air if an invasion of Britain

is to be anything more than wishful thinking, which it barely is.

Hitler's Operation Sealion is ill-conceived and rushed. 

But that is left for him to find out.

________________________

l o v e    

   d a d

©  Tom Taylor 

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