Most decisive European battle of WWII??

All of which is correct. Also remember that in 1940 no battleship has been sunk in combat conditions by aircraft.

To the best of my knowledge no battleship has ever been sunk while under even limited fighter cover. Fighter Command will not fight to the the last Spitfire before conceding the English South East. Whatever is left after a defeat in the BoB will be used to protect since this offers the best chance of defeating the invasion. If you scrape together every pilot you have (FAA, Bomber and Coastal commands) this is still likely to be quiet a few squadrons.

I saw a bit on TV which included an interview with a former German bomber pilot. He was in one of the unit that were assigned to attack the British fleet in the event of invasion. His attitude could be sumed up as "err... do we have to?"

You have to keep the channel clear of the RN at all costs and the Luftwaffe and KM can't guarantee that.

 

it's all irrelevant air superiority or the roayl navy, dont forget all the germans had to get their army,supplies etc across the channel was a few inflatable lilos and a box of flip-flops. It was neva in their original plans to invade only thought about it after great britain refused to make a peace.

remember it took the allies nearly 2 years of planning and preperation to get across!!

 

Notmi - Britain did mine her beaches, but that was about as formidable as the anti-invasion defences got. Large fields had trenches dug or poles erected to stop transport aircraft or gliders landing.
In essence, if the Germans could get across the Channel, they could establish a beachead without too much trouble. Provided they:
a) had some kind of preparatory bombardments, and/or a method of mine clearence.
b) had some way of getting tanks ashore in the first wave or two.

Neither of which was actually much of an option for the Germans in 1940/41.

 

Another thing is that, had the RAF in the Southeast been defeated, the losses would have been (if slowly) filled up with Spitfires to replace Hurricanes. The Spitfire was superior to the German fighters of the time. Even a few of these could make a great difference in the picture of air superiority even after Britain had 'lost' the BoB.

 

The main reason the BoB was lost was because the Germans moved from bombing the airfields to bombing London, Had this not happened then the Aircraft on the ground and the airfields would have been destroyed. The Germans would have lost fewer of their aircraft and had a much greater influence, I am not saying it would be easy but a hard fought German victory.

 

Absolutely, GP. Fighter Command was on the ropes when the Luftwaffe started bombing London; this was hard on the Londoners but a lifesaver for the RAF, which got a chance to recover from the punishment the Germans had dealt to them. The invasion could then have taken place, even if it amounted to no more than a couple of divisions securing a perimeter from which to conduct future operations. Remember, Germany did manage to invade Norway; I believe that they would have found a way to get troops to England. And it has to be remembered that there was precisely ONE fully equipped division in the entire British Army at that time. Of course, I'm certain that the Brits would still have made things very interesting for the invasion force... :bang: