Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "Why Did Nazi Germany Abandon Their Plan To Invade Britain? | World War II In Colour | War Stories" video.

  1. Then ignoring French & British warnings that they would declare war if Germany invaded Poland was an odd way of demonstrating peaceful intentions, I suggest.
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  2. The Channel Islands are Crown Dependencies, and not actually part of Great Britain.
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  3.  @charlesmartella  But as I commented earlier, the Channel Islands were, and are, Crown Dependencies, not part of Great Britain.
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  4.  @King_of_Railways  You think that the Czech & Polish pilots saved Britain? Presumably the over 2,600 British & Commonwealth pilots simply sat back and watched in awed admiration, did they?
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  5. Using your skill and judgement, would you be good enough to explain how invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, all without declaration of war, shows that 'they tried to maintain peace the entire time?' I must lack your erudition, as it really doesn't seem that way to me.
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  6. Would you have recommended captulation instead?
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  7. But, presumably, forget the other 70 RAF fighter squadrons?
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  8. 'Control of the natural resources, raw materials, industrial production of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Indian subcontinent including Burma and 3/4 of Africa. Plus 4.5 million Common wealth troops.' None of which, you fail to mention, were readily available to the defence of Britain in 1940.
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  9. 'The Germans had no where near enough transport for 20 divisions.' The assault wave was to consist of nine divisions and a seriously under strength parachute division. Walter Ansel, who had access to Kriegsmarine records at the end of the war, determined that the Germans had requisitioned 180 transport ship (largely small coasting vessels), just over 2,100 converted barges, 400 tugs/trawlers, and 1,200 motor boats, The first wave was to consist of around 850 barges, towed in pairs by the tugs/trawlers and the transports, would carry the leading elements of each division. The Germans had enough vessels to carry out their alloted tasks. What they did not have, of course, was any means of protecting this ramshackle flotilla from the 70 RN cruisers and destroyers which were based some five hours steaming from Dover, supported by around 500 or so smaller warships.
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  10. Fond of extermination camps and slave labour, are you?
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  11. Actually, no they don't.
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  12. Some might say 'These days the BBC is on the enemy's side.'
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  13.  @JamalBrown-k1x  Actually, for every two US soldiers who landed on the beaches of Normandy, there were three British & Canadians.
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  14. Good heavens! I never knew that, in 1939/40, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, & Belgium, all invaded without declaration of war, presumably for their own good, by your peaceloving Germans, were evil bastions of communism.
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  15. So that explains why the fighting took place over Britain, with the Germans flying from bases in conquered countries?
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  16. Three spelling mistakes in a single sentence. You should have asked mummy or daddy to check your post before sending it.
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  17. It seems that you are ignorant of the lengths German military planning went to in an attempt to make it credible. Or the heavy losses the Luftwaffe was willing to accept in aircraft and experienced aircrews, in pursuit of your 'bluff.' I can recommend a few books.
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  18. Your indoctrinators must be pleased with you for remembering your programming so well.
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  19. In 1940, the Soviet Union was in a non-aggression pact with Germany, which involved supplying the Germans with large quantities of raw materials. Does that answer your question?
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  20. Exactly how did 'brave women & men Russian soldiers give their lives to stop the invasion?'
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  21. As a Georges Clemenceau replied when a German diplomat said of the Treaty of Versailles, 'I wonder what history will say about this?' 'History will not say that Belgium invaded Germany.' Something similiar seems to have applied in 1940.
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  22.  sydmccreath4554  Nonsense. The Luftwaffe had failed badly at Dunkirk, largely because of a lack of training in anti-shipping operations. In fact, in the whole of WW2, the Luftwaffe sank 31 British destroyers, and no RN warship at all larger than a light cruiser. I do appreciate the comments of you Sealion 'would haves' however. Always telling everyone what the mighty Luftwaffe 'would have' done, but never able to explain why it never actually did it. By the way, your example 1. Bismarck was damaged by a Fleet Air Arm Swordfish using an 18 inch torpedo. The Germans never had the equivalent of a Fleet Air Arm, and never even acquired a torpedo bomber until mid 1942. Example 2. There was no US Air Force in WW2. Most Japanese warships were destroyed by naval aircraft flying from aircraft carriers. In fact, the US version of the British Fleet Air Arm.
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  23. Which 'waves of Fallshirmjager' would they have been? After serious losses in Norway & The Netherlands, there were only around 4,500 left by September, 1940. Additionally, there were only just over 220 operational transport aircraft available.
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  24. Are standards of education really so dire in the United States? If so, it explains a lot.
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  25. To put it more simply. Look how long the two greatest naval powers on earth took to plan and execute Operation Overlord, then ask how likely it was that Germany, with a tiny navy and no similar experience, could come up with something similar in two months.
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  26. Especially one which was defended by the largest navy on the planet.
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  27. There were no working oil fields in Libya at the time, and German troops were only sent to North Africa after the catastrophic Italian defeat, culminating in Beda Fomm, that had been Operation Compass.
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  28. Churchill was not in power when the British declared war. In fact, he had held no government position of any kind since 1929. Perhaps you were unaware, additionally, that Churchill was voted back into power in 1951? In fact, I suspect that you really aren't aware of much.
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  29.  @tom79013  But in 1940 they were far away and unprepared. The only Commonwealth troops in Britain in September 1940 were one Canadian Division & two Ausrealian/New Zealand Brigades. Of 34.5 operational; Divisions, 32.5 were British. Supporting voices from Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, or India would be of little practical use had the Germans managed to land troops on the south coast of England.
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  30. Really? You clearly didn't know about German bombing in WW1. Or about German bombing of Spanish towns in the Civil War, or of Warsaw. Or about German raids on Scotland in October, 1939.
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  31. Actually, the Bengal Famine had a number of causes, among which were the number of refugees from Japanese held areas, the inability to import food from those same areas, stockpiling by hoarders and, perhaps worst of all, the Bengal administration, which tried to minimise the crisis. The worst that could be said of Churchill was that he should have known what was taking place, but didn't. After all, in 1943, he had little else to worry about. You could also add the refusal of FDR to allow the transfer of merchant shipping, by the way. What is without dispute, except by those who choose to blame Churchill for everything since the Black Death, is that once he did find out, he transferred food distribution to the British Indian Army, and had grain convoys diverted from Australia to India. I appreciate, of course, that you won't believe any of this, as it doesn't suit the agenda with which you have been indoctrinated. However, for once try to think outside your programming and ask yourself this : There were 2.5 million Indians serving with the Allied forces at the time. Is it likely that Churchill would have considered, even for a moment and even had he been so inclined, to alienate them?
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  32. Not until March, 1941.
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  33. 'Why do people still say that germany ever had a plan to invade GB?' Many people do not think that. Only those of us who have studied German planning and preparation in the latter half of 1940 in detail know beyond doubt that it was not a bluff. I could recommend a book or two?
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  34. Nonsense. 'France, Holland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Czechosolvakia, Poland, and Norway' had been occupied. There were no Indian, South African, or Rhodesian, troops in Britain in 1940. The only Commonwealth troops were one Canadian Division, and two Australian & New Zealand Battalions.
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  35.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  It really isn't worth replying to this celebrated single sentence troll and crank.
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  36. Really? Even if the war against Russia didn't begin until over six months after the Battle of Britain & Sealion had been abandoned?
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  37.  @CityRedesigner1945  Must have slipped my mind. I always thought the Battle of Britain would have been won more quickly if British & Commonwealth pilots had not just stood back and left it entirely to the Poles and Czechs.
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  38. To blockade Britain, any enemy would need to close the Atlantic.
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  39. 'Germany kept trying to de-escalate.' Oh dear, the plaintive cry of that sad bird, the Lesser Spotted Neo. How did Germany try to do that? Unless you count hitler's 'Last Appeal to Reason' of 19 July, 1940, aka 'Surrender or we bomb you.' Made when, after Mers el Kebir, if finally dawned on him that the British were not going to sign a French style Armistice/Surrender, and he had no means of invading. As to the Hess comic interlude. If the intention is to seek confidential talks, do you :- 1). Make discreet approaches to British Embassies in Spain, Sweden, or Switzerland. Or perhaps even approach the United States to act as a neutral arbiter? or:- 2). Let an unbalanced member of your staff fly to Scotland, in order, hopefully, to bail out near the estate of a minor Scottish aristocrat who might, just possibly, have the ear of Winston Churchill? As the exam papers used to say 'Give reasons for your answer.'
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  40. Adding exclamation marks doesn't make a comment any less crass, you know.
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  41.  @King_of_Railways  You don't call declaring was not interfering? What saved Britain was the most advanced air defence system in the world, a large number of British & Commonwealth pilots who understood how it operated, and a number of instructors who taught it to the Poles and Czechs. But most of all, the Royal Navy.
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  42. Except the Germans needed rather more than simply aircraft to attempt an invasion of Britain.
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  43. Which is, of course, entirely false. The Admiralty were given warnings about the danger by intelligence, but this intelligence did not involve any Enigma decrypts.
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  44. Yes. Churchill did believe that white Europeans were superior. As did many people at the time. Gandhi believed that Africans were inferior humans who should not be accorded the right to vote. Where do you get the idea of mass slaughter of Indians & Africans from, out of interest?
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  45. ​ @jebbroham1776  Don't be silly. How would these 'more forces' arrive, given the tiny number of transport aircraft in service? None of which could carry anything other than light troops anyway. By the way, by September, 1940, the British had 34.5 operational divisions on the mainland.
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  46.  @jebbroham1776  Aside from minor differences, the WW1 Lee Enfield and the one used in WW2 were essentially the same rifle. Moreover, the divisions had effective artillery, mechanised transport, and armoured support. In terms of tanks, even immediately after Dunkirk, the British had 331 light tanks, 184 cruisers, and 100 Infantry tanks. By the end of August, these numbers had increased to 659 lights, 322 cruisers, and 274 'I tanks. By September, the idea that the British were short of equipment is a false one. 'COULD Germans have landed in Southern England? Absolutely.' Sorry, but you missed a word after 'absolutely.' The word was 'not.' The RN Pink List for September, 1940 shows some 70 light cruisers and destroyers within five hours steaming of the Straits of Dover, with around five hundred small warships in immediate support. The Germans were going to get past this force how, precisely? With canal barges towed by tugs and trawlers, defended bt the seven destroyers and seven large torpedo boats which were all the Kreigsmarine could provide in September, 1940? Do you really think so?
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  47.  @jebbroham1776  The idea of Britain being almost defenceless after Dunkirk is one of the enduring myths of 1940, in common with the belief that only the RAF stood between Britain & Invasion. In point of fact, in 1940 the British manufactured more tanks, and more aircraft, than the Germans did. The reason for this belief seems to have been Churchill's understandable determination to bring the manufacturing capacity of the United States into the war on Britain's side. Consequently, given the considerable opposition to foreign wars in the US at the time, he overplayed Britain's weakness. After all, saying 'we have the largest navy in the world, there is no possibility of Britain being conquered' would hardly have promoted the David against Goliath picture he was seeking to promote.
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  48. What peace offer? YOu neos all sing from the same sheet, but equally can never answer any question.
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  49. How long would it have take to train and equip 100,000 Channel swimmers?
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  50. 'There are those that subscribe to the notion that Churchill had intelligence of the upcoming attack on Pearl harbour.' There are others who subscribe to the notion that both the Loch Ness monster and the Cottingley fairies really exist. They are equally deluded.
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  51. The Kreiegmarine was even more seriously weakened by the Royal Navy. An airborne assault was never remotely possible. After Norway and the campaign against the Netherlands, Belgium & France, the Germans were reduced to only around 4,500 paratroopers, and had only around 220 transport aircraft still operational.
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  52. 'Every aircraft, tank, and military man on foot' had an Enigma Machine? I really don't think so.
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  53. Who was building those Mosquitoes in 1940? Actually, no-one was. At the time of the Sealion threat, the only Commonwealth troops in Britain were 1 Canadian Division & 2 Australian/New Zealand Brigades. Moreover, the Canadian Navy at the time consisted of one flotilla of destroyers. The Commonwealth & Empire made a huge contribution later, but not as early as 1940.
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  54. 'Myself and the entire world are extremely saddened that Germany didn’t invade England during WW2 because the whole world today would be a thousand times better off had they done so.' Keen on military aggression, mass extermination of anyone you deem to be 'inferior,' and widespread slave labour deportations, are you?
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  55.  @bw6524  There seems to be a general rule about Sealion commentators. The less they actually know about the facts of 1940, the more they are convinced that Sealion could have succeeded.
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  56. German Records suggest that some 3,350 aircraft were committed to the campaign against Britain. By the way, air superiority did not mean control of the Channel. Especially since events like Dunkirk had demonstrated how poor the Luftwaffe was at attacking ships at sea.
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  57.  @WasNotWas999  It wasn't as if the English Channel should have come as a surprise, though. It had been there for a while.
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  58. 'The US and UK just came after the russians already conquered Berlin.' It seems your knowledge now is just as faulty as it ever was.
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  59.  @paulohagan3309  Alas, you have told any reader more about your own prejudices than about anything you did, or did not, encounter at Bletchley Park.
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  60.  @MyWifesBoyfriend-pp8kq  Questionable. My daughter's secondary school, when teaching what they pretended was 20th century history, had a syllabus which included four topics only :- Votes for Women, Roosevelt's New Deal, The Blitz/ Evacuation of children from London, and Vietnam. This was, by the way, in Britain, not the United States.
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  61. Who knew that the British Army had an aerial bomber force? Did it have any warships as well? Sorry, herr Obersturmbannfuhrer, but your neo script is becoming increasingly threadbare. Go back to your flat, light a candle in front of your print of 'der Bannertrager' polish your collection of SS daggers, and sing the 'Horst Wessel' song whilst sobbing quietly to yourself. Oh dear, so long ago, and so many people still unexterminated.
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  62. No, the British Army probably wasn't. Now compare the air forces and, better still, the navies.
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  63. Then worry about them, then, and don't post comments about historical subjects.
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  64. Other than one Canadian division and two Australian/New Zealand Brigades, the land defences of Britain in September were entirely British.
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  65. Do you know how many Commonwealth forces were actually in Britain in 1940? Actually, one Canadian division & two Australian/New Zealand brigades. The US was nowhere to be seen.
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  66. But he did expend around 2,500 aircraft and their experienced aircrew in operations against Britain.
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  67. Of course. I am sure that that must have really weighed highly in hitler's mind? Don't be silly.
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  68.  @JamalBrown-k1x  The subject of the video was 1940, not 1944.
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  69.  @ZionIst-liessssss  Presumably, you don't consider Scotland, bombed in October, 1939, to be part of Great Britain?
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  70. But the fact is the British did have a navy. At the time the largest in the world. I am reasonably sure that the Germans knew about it, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise.
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  71. Of course Britain (and France) wanted the industrial might of the US as allies. Who wouldn't? If Germany wanted Britain & France to remain neutral, wasn't invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, not the most obvious way of demonstrating her peaceful intentions? 'By mid-1940, The Wehrmacht was redeploying troops to Poland for Operation Barbarossa.' Hardly, until September, plans for Sealion were still being progressed. I don't think any part of the British Empire regarded themselves as 'Slave States.' Britain & France didn't go to war in 'defence' of Poland. The Treaty with Poland simply said that, if Germany invaded Poland, they would declare war on Germany. Oh, and an 'iron oar' would sink.
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  72. Why, herr obergruppenfuhrer? Actually I have, although I feel an odd need to shower in disinfectant afterwards.
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  73. Nonsense. The effort put into the planning, and in particular the number of ships, barges, tugs, & motor boats requisitioned and converted, shows how serious the Germans were. Not to mention the loss of 2,500 aircraft and many of their crews on a 'bluff.' Whar 'risk of the US helping?' Do you even know how weak the US army was in 1940?
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  74. Doesn't work because in 1940 both Tory and Labour politicians were, at heart, patriots. Now, and for some years past, almost all are not.
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  75. Their Admiral was given plenty of warnings, and plenty of options. He simply refused to pass on the British ultimatum to his own government.
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  76.  @BrasilianZombie  So, you contend that a potention operation which was abandoned in October 1940 was really a diversion for an operation which began in June, 1941, do you? Why cite Clausewitz when he is clearly nothing more than a name to you? A suitable and relevant archive? Try the Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv, in Freiburg, as a conveniennt place to start. For a more easily accessible source in book form, you might look at 'The Invasion of England 1940' by Peter Schenk, for a detailed study of German plans written by a respected German historian. For Hitler's actual 'explicit orders' perhaps you might read Directive 16, of 16 July, 1940? I assume that you have heard of it? Possibly not.
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  77. Britain bombed Berlin before the outbreak of war? Try again.
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  78. Do you also thank the Soviets?
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  79. Which, in 1940, had a non-aggression pact with Germany.
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  80. My primary answer would be even shorter : RN.
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  81. No, the Western Allies, together with the Soviet Union, won WW2.
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  82. You don't actually seem to have much knowledge of the subject, I fear.
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  83. So, commandeering 2000+ barges, 400+ tugs, 200+ freighters, & 1100+ motor boats, converting them, and moving them to Channel ports, was a bluff? Not to mention losing 2500+ aircraft and many of their experienced crews? If you think Soviet equipment in 1941 was 'the best' you need to do a bit more reading.
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  84.  @peace-now  Very good. Now explain how one Australian division and one Indian division successfully helping to defeat the Italian tenth army in North Africa from December 1940 were helping to defend Britain from German invasion between July & September, 1940. Aside from a small number of Australian ships in the Mediterranean, and seven Canadian destroyers in Home Waters, the Royal Navy was entirely British crewed., I fear that you will never become the reincarnation of Von Clausewitz.
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  85.  @peace-now  My attitude shows only that I have a detailed knowledge of the subject, as you would expect of someone with a First in Modern History. Feel free to answer the question I posed, instead of simply throwing your toys out of your pram.
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  86.  @peace-now  Please tell me when I said that Britain's allies 'didn't matter.' I simply explained, on a site about Operation Sealion, that in 1940 their contributions were still almost entirely in the future. The facts, of course, agree with me. The only bias here is your own.
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  87.  @lordvadar6104  'Your assessment of the Kriegsmarine's capabilities is faulty'. Actually, it is quite correct. When the Royal Navy had some 70 destroyers and light cruisers within 5 hours steaming of Dover, backed up by around 500 other smaller warships, without even calling upon the destroyers of the Home Fleet, mainly at Rosyth, the Germans were never going to defend an invasion force of barges being towed in pairs by tugs & trawlers with the seven operational destroyers, a similar number of Wolf/Mowe class torpedo boats, and a handful of minesweepers. The FW200 might have been a useful reconnaissance aircraft, but was never capable of conversion to a heavy bomber, and the FW190 was only introduced in August, 1941. 'Had Goering stayed with the original plan of gaining air superiority over England then operation Sea lion would have taken place.' Indeed, it might have been attempted. You now need to explain how it would seek to avoid the RN, available in the strength referred to above. 'The German submarine fleet held the allied merchant marine fleet in check, the supply line from North America was severely restricted by their activities.' Aside from your exaggerated assessment of the capabilities of the U-boat fleet later in the war, you now need to explain how a fleet of 63 boats, of which 27 were operational, and, on any one day, only 13 at sea, during September, 1940, would achieve much at all of benefit to any invasion attempt.
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  88.  @johnmadara1252  No, they didn't. France & Britain formed an alliance with Poland, to the effect that both would declare war if Germany invaded Poland. It was an attempt to prevent a wider European war by putting an end to German military aggression.
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  89. George Santayana Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
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  90. You are correct. But I wonder how many people have even heard of Tunny?
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  91. Why do you people even bother to comment? As Mark Twain said ' Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt.' Alas, too late in your case.
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  92. By 'comically bad' do you refer to Churchill's time in the trenches of the Western Front? Or his role as Minister of Munitions under Lloyd George from 1917 - 1919? Which wars do you believe Churchill 'mongered? Certainly Churchill regarded white Europeans as superior. He was, after all, born in 1874, and thus failed to follow the rules of the 21st century. Mind you, the same thing applied to Gandhi, born in 1869, who regarded Africans as an inferior breed of Human Being. Perhaps your indoctrinators failed to mention that?
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  93. The idea od invasion was abandoned in late 1940. Until June 1941, Genial Uncle Joe and adolf had a non-aggression pact. A problem of dates here, I suggest?
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  94.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Fair enough. I had noticed the similar (lack of) style, but hadn't appreciated the connection.
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  95. You do understand the concept of the 'Dominion' I suppose. The British Empire was alreading evolving into a Commonwealth of Nations well before WW2.
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  96.  sydmccreath4554  Weren't Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa self-governing Dominions before WW2? Have you even heard of the Government of India Act of 1935, by the way? I hope this answer is not too simple for you?
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  97.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Nonsense. Radar was devised by a Sub-Sarahan African. Just like everything else.
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  98. What deal?
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  99.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Posts suddenly vanishing seems to be happening more frequently. It can be very annoying when a reply full of detail suddenly vanishes into the ether.
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  100. So, over 2000 barges, 1100 motor boats 400 tugs, and almost 200 freighters were requisitioned and converted, as well as 2500 aircraft and most of their crews lost, on the strength of a bluff?
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  101. No. That is very simplistic. It is also inaccurate.
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  102. No. The way the attack would be repelled would be by the vast number of RN warships and auxiliaries in the area sinking the pitiful tug-towed barges which were the nearest thing the Germans had to landing craft. The story of badly burned German troops is part of the 'Shingle Street' myth, which has long ago been proven false. Had the British repelled a German invasion attempt, were they really likely to have kept quiet about it?
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  103. Your caps lock seems to be faulty. The Battle of Britain was won by, overwhelmingly, British & Commonwealth pilots, supported by a small number of European ones. All these pilots flew British aircraft, and operated within a British designed Air Defence System. Next, are you going to claim that Bismarck was sunk by Piorun, or something equally silly?
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  104. Why was withdrawing 13 divisions after allied (Belgian and French) forces totalling over 100 divisions had surrendered or collapsed 'shameful?' By the time the United States was dragged in by Germany & Japan, by the way, Germany was already also at war with the Soviet Union, and any possibility of Britain being defeated had long vanished. The arrival of the US hastened Allied victory, but it certainly did not save Britain.
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  105. Except in 1940 Uncle Joe was best mates with adolf.
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  106.  @iansneddon2956  Sorry. Flippancy can sometimes be one of my sins!
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  107.  @EQOAnostalgia  Surely you are not still angry after all this time, herr obergruppenfuhrer?
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  108. How do you reason that?
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  109. So, requisitioning 2000+ barges and converting them, also commandeering 400+ tugs, 200+ freighters, and 1100+ motor boats, was simply a game, was it? Not to mention losing 2,500 aircraft and most of their experienced crews?
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  110. Actually, Kennedy gave Roosevelt such a jaundiced view of Britain that FDR sent his own man, William Donovan, to find out the facts. Which he duly did.
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  111.  @SagesVerse1  ' There's an entire book about it, go read it if you want.' I probably have. Perhaps you might tell me what it is called? By the way, don't simply believe everything you see in videos.
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  112.  @SagesVerse1  Oh good. Were the invasions of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, and Belgium intended to demonstrate the seriousness of these 'Peace Offers?'
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  113.  @iansneddon2956  I was going to suggest Montgolfier ballons, but feared I might be taken seriously.
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  114. The last British monarch born outside this country was George II. In 1683.
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  115. Even if true, how is that relevant to Sealion?
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  116.  @alfredopampanga9356  Just as you must have a remarkable imagination if you think that Roosevelt's opinion of Churchill, negative or positive, had the slightest influence on Operation Sealion. You might perhaps reflect on whether Roosevelt's alleged personal opinions had any effect on his support for Lend Lease. Or whether Churchill's and later FDR's views of Stalin stopped them supporting the Soviet Union? Perhaps it hasn't occurred to you that politicians can hold vastly differing political opinions, as FDR & Churchill certainly did, but still have a cordial personal relationship? I refer you, in British terms, to Enoch Powell & Tony Benn.
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  117.  @alfredopampanga9356  You do seem to be a choleric and argumentative little chap. I would ask you for your evidence that the relationship was argumentative, but as you seem more interested in insults than answers, it would probably serve no purpose.
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  118.  @alfredopampanga9356  Please be a little more honest, and state the source of that comment. It was, allegedly, made to Joseph Kennedy, the eminent Anglophobe.
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  119. Not really.
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  120.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Or, when asked 'is the woman with you your wife or your sister?' receiving the reply 'both'.
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  121. Why? It wasn't.
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  122.  @EQOAnostalgia  Using your skill and judgement, would you be good enough to explain how invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, all without declaration of war, shows that 'they tried to maintain peace the entire time?' I must lack your erudition, as it really doesn't seem that way to me.
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  123.  sydmccreath4554  I have no need to extend any vocabulary when dealing with people who are lacking in actual historical knowledge. By the way, insults are a poor substitute for debate or argument.
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  124. Do explain.
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  125. So, why were 2000+ barges requisitioned, converted, and sent to Channel ports? Why were 400+ tugs requisitioned to tow them? Why were 100+ motor boats also sent to Channel Ports? Why were 200+ freighters requisitioned as transports? Oh, and why were some 1700 aircraft and their crews sacrificed to no purpose?
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  126. Except that, after the Battle of Britain and the abandonment of Operation Sealion in the face of British naval supremacy, Britain did not need saving.
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  127. Indian troops were not 'sent' anywhere. There was no conscription, yet 2.5 million joined the allied armed forces.
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  128. As you have asked nicely, I will. Not only is it not true, but it borders upon insanity.
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  129.  @EQOAnostalgia  The Germans lost the Battle of Britain, and never had the slightest hope of crossing the Channel in the face of British naval supremacy in any case.
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  130.  @peternagy-im4be  Unfortunately, the TV series paints a completely false picture. Except in the very early days, the Home Guard was reasonably well equipped with small arms, although lacking in artillery and transport. The intention was that the men (many of whom were veterans of the WW1 trenches) would operate in co-operation with regular troops, using their good knowledge of their local highways and byways.
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  131.  @georgefox4982  Battles are generally fought to achieve a tactical or strategic objective. The British achieved theirs, whereas the Germans did not.
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  132. They intended to use converted barges towed by tugs and trawlers instead. Good luck with that.
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  133.  @Eragonking53  I suspect he believes that you are an idiot. I suspect that he is probably correct in that belief.
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  134. I think a rather more intelligent opinion than that of old 'Blood and Guts' would be needed to try to make that argument.
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  135. There were two Australian/New Zealand brigades, and one Canadian division, in Britain by September, 1940. Of 34.5 operational divisions, 32.5 were British.
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  136. Is an English translation of your comment available?
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  137. Churchill proposed Gallipoli, as an alternative to the unfolding carnage on the Western Front, but he was not involved in the planning. After the allied victory in North Africa, where else should allied troops have been deployed, given that any possibility of a landing in France was at least a year away?
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  138.  @colonelchuck5590  In the case of Gallipoli, Kitchener had received a request from the Tsar' General Staff for Britain to take action to reduce the threat to Russia's southern flank. The hope was that this could be achieved by knocking Turkey out of the war, which might have also had the additonal benefit of bringing the hitherto neutral Eastern European states into the war on the allied side. In fact, the idea was no more 'insane' than were the Normandy landings. It was, however, badly planned by the military. Ironically, after the war, Kemal Ataturk said that, had the allied navies maintained their pressure on the Dardanelles for a little longer, the Turkisn government would have crumbled. In terms of insanity, by the way, didn't George Marshall argue for Operation Sledgehammer, a landing in France in 1942?
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  139. I often wonder why people comment when they have, seemingly, nothing intelligent to say. Perhaps you might explain it?
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  140. Not really. What were the Soviets actually doing in 1940?
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  141. Whey do you people all sing from the same crumpled piece of A4? Which 'Peace Proposals' did Churchill refuse. Feel free to provide sources / documentary evidence. Had your hero really had any peace proposals, whould he have approached Britain by? :- 1). Making cautious approaches to the the British Government through embassies in neutral countries, such, as Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, or even through the United States. 2). Allowing an unbalanced individual to fly himself to Scotland, in order to bale out somewhere near the home of a Scottish aristocrat who might possibly have known Churchill. Try to give rational reasons for your answer. Good luck.
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  142. Who were? Certainly not the British, by December, 1941.
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  143. What makes you think that? If, of course, you can think?
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  144. The Prime Minister at the time was James Ramsay MacDonald. He told the Commons, in May 1935, that the treaty was to define an agreed limit to the growth of the German Navy. Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary at the time, wrote to King George V in January of the same year that ' "The practical choice is between a Germany which continues to rearm without any regulation or agreement and a Germany which, through getting a recognition of its rights and some modifications of the Peace Treaties enters into the comity of nations and contributes in this or other ways to European stability. As between these two courses, there can be no doubt which is the wiser". The following month, a meeting between Pierre Laval & MacDonald led to a joint communique that proposed talks with Germany on Arms Limitation, and an 'Air Pact.'
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  145.  @MarkHarrison733  Oh look! The one sentence troll is here again.
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  146.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  You are wasting your time replying to this sad, single sentence, troll. Even if he is now using a different name.
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  147. Is education in the US really so poor, or is it just you? Don't you think that Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war might have played some part? Assuming, of course, that you think at all?
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  148.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  I think i'll just wait until an English translation appears.
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  149. So, you believe that the Germans expended over 1,800 aircraft, and around 2,500 aircrew, on nothing more than a ruse? Just as they requisitioned and converted over 2,000 barges, over 400 tugs, 1,100 motor boats, and 200 freighters, just for the sake of something to do? Really?
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  150. After being scapegoated for the planning failure that was Gallipoli, Churchill spent some time serving in the trenches of the Western Front. He returned to government as Minister of Munitions when Lloyd George succeeded Asquith. From 1929 until September, 1939, he held no government position.
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  151. The subject is Operation Sealion. Which means 1940.
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  152.  @mentalretard2359  Wasn't Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar smaller than the Franco-Spanish one? I don't recall ever reading that the allies portrayed themselves as underdogs in the Crimea. The only occasion when the British portrayed themselves as underdogs in the Zulu Wars was at Rorke's Drift. As to the Falklands, it takes considerable creative thinking to deny that the British were really anything other than underdogs there. Still, given your '50 times the economy' claim, I fear accuracy does not rank high among your undoubted list of skills.
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  153. Erudite comments are always appreciated on sites like this. What a pity yours isn't one of them.
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  154. I didn't even know he was a qualified pilot.
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  155. Air superiority over the Channel wouldn't have made an invasion possible, as the Royal Navy held absolute supremacy in home waters.
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  156. Not in 1940 they weren't.
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  157. The Poles did indeed make important contributions to breaking Enigma, but Enigma evolved, and the later work was entirely British. Making any other claim is akin to suggesting that the Wright brothers designed every aircraft because they designed the first one.
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  158.  @paulohagan3309  All I can say is that your experience of Bletchley Park and the people who work there does not accord with mine, at any of the several occasions I have been there.
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  159.  @paulohagan3309  Oh well, I should have known better than to have expected a reasoned answer from you. Actually, just as I expected, also.
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  160.  @paulohagan3309  'Moving the goalposts?' Let's see. You made a comment about a visit to Bletchley Park. I gave you a response. You then started writing about my accent, and the 'general English attitudes of superiority and exceptionalism'. Then you rambled on about ' If anyone dares to criticise the Chosen people be it ever so mildly, they're full of prejudice.' And you accuse me of gaslighting and 'moving the goalposts?' Astonishing. You have not so much moved them, as removed them. There will be no more replies from me, by the way. You really aren't worth wasting time and effort upon.
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  161. You aren't apparently, aware of German raids in WW1? Or of the bombing of Spanish villages during the Civil War, or of the bombing of Warsaw, or of Rotterdam? I wonder if you are actually aware of much?
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  162. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor & Germany declared war, the US population really didn't have much choice, did it?
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  163.  @HansJakobGrimmelshausen  Please check the facts. Do not believe me. 1). I have checked the facts. 2). I do not believe you. Largely because those facts do not support you.
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  164. Britain had survived. The USA was only dragged reluctantly into WW2 by Japan & Germany.
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  165. You mean if Britain, like France.had simply capitulated? What 'peace terms?'
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  166.  @jamiegpersonal  Unless, of course, you were a member of one of numerous groups who were to be liquidated. Or you had been chosen to be a slave labourer in the Fatherland, where you would enjoy a brief, agonising, life before you died of starvation and overwork.
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  167.  @Youtubechannel-po8cz  Tell me something I don't know. Alternatively, you might answer the point I made?
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  168. Apart from one Canadian division and two Australian & New Zealand brigades, no it didn't in 1940.
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  169. It might have sailed. But encountering the Royal Navy's anti-invasion forces was likely to have brought it to an abrupt, and bloody, halt.
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  170. Really? Did he tell you that himself?
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  171. What influence did Churchill have? He was not in government between 1929 & September, 1939. If Germany didn't want war, wasn't invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, & Belgium, all without any declarations of war, an odd way of demonstrating peaceful intentions?
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  172.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Word of advice. Don't waste your time replying to this one sentence troll/clown.
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  173. Then why expend so much time and resources on preparations in the summer of 1940? Why sacrifice 1200 aircraft and crews on a hoax?
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  174.  @bobsakamanos4469  Your response gets deleted, yet here I am reading your response. The air raids did not diminish British military capability in any way, and certainly had little or no effect on shipping, nor on dockyards. The Battle of Britain was an attempt to secure aerial superiority over South Eastern Britain, as a prelude to an invasion attempt. It is as simple as that.,
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  175. Why would Britain have accepted something which never occurred?
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  176.  @OneAndOnlyKJx  No, I didn't. I simply replied to your earlier comment about your imaginary German peace treaty.
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  177. There were no oilfields in production in Libya at the time.
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  178.  @bobhope9317  Try again. Libya was an Italian possession in 1940. A small German force was sent there early in 1941 because of the Italian disasters of Operation Compass and Beda Fomm, to shore up the Italian position there. The Afrika Korps did not go there to build oil wells which would not be in production for many years.
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  179.  @arnepietruszewski9255  Unfortunately, there are many people who post comments on such sites who are profoundly ignorant of the most basic of facts. Bob seems to be one of them.
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  180.  @SeanSmith-f3t  Do try to explain how these events are connected?
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  181. In 1940, the only Commonwealth forces in Britain were one Canadian Division and two Australian/New Zealand Brigades. In the unlikely event of German troops actually landing, their landing would be opposed by forces overwhelmingly British in composition. Of 34.5 divisions in Britain in September, 1940, 32.5 were British. The Commonwealth & Empire played an important part in WW2, but not in the defence of Britain in 1940. Good wishes from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, & India at the time might have been appreciated, but wouldn't have helped much materially. 'And Britain has since reneged on it's promises to all that people of Empire.' You mean the promises of self-government & independence? I thought both had been granted. Did I miss something?
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  182. Presumably 303 were the only allied squadron to fight in the Battle of Britain? The Poles, and others who had taken refuge in Britain after their own countries had fallen, were housed, fed, and supplied by the British throughout, and any debts they incurred written off at the end of the war. You can learn about this for yourself :- 'Treaty about finances between Poland and Great Britain and Northern Ireland' of 1946, if you like.
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  183.  @robertrobski1013  Oh dear. You really aren't very bright, are you?
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  184. Actually, most historians believe that the invasion plan was real, but hugely optimistic.
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  185. The US was dragged in by Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war, right at the end of 1941, by which time any danger of Britain & the Commonwealth losing had long passed.
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  186.  @iansneddon2956  Earl St. Vincent's statement to the House of Lords in 1801, 'I do not say, my Lords, that they will not come. I only say, they will not come by sea,' still held good in 1940. Or, as the remarkably named C-in-C at the Nore, Sir Reginald Plunkett-Ernle-Earle-Drax, remarked, rather less elegantly 'To defeat the invasion force, we need gunfire and plenty of it.' The fact that the Royal Navy Pink List from 16 September, 1940, shows some seventy destroyers and light cruisers within five hours steaming of the Straits of Dover suggests that his wish might well have been granted.
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  187. What part did he play in events surrounding Operation Sealion?
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  188.  @ZionIst-liessssss  What was? Your earlier post seems to have vanished into the ether, by the way.
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  189.  @ZionIst-liessssss  '13th when the first one hit scotland.almost 2.5months into it.' No. 17th October. Scapa Flow.
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  190.  @ZionIst-liessssss  Seen it. You would get a more account reading back copies of Völkischer Beobachter.
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  191.  @ZionIst-liessssss  Well, it would probably have been more accurate on matters historical if I had. Why bother posting when you have nothing to say?
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  192.  @ZionIst-liessssss  'most of what i say vanishes and we know why tgat is.' I didn't know that posts were removed for offences against spelling.
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  193.  @ZionIst-liessssss  'THATS THE TROUBLE WITH MODERN DAY ZIONS YOU HATE THE TRUTH.' I assume that that is intended to be an insult? My old Professor always said that when people resort to insults, it is because they lack any arguments.
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  194. 'America' did not 'rescue' anyone. She was dragged into WW2 by Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war.
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  195.  @Ole-sf4ps  Clearly, thumping angrily at your keyboard had broken the caps lock.
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  196.  @Ole-sf4ps  I apologise, then. If it isn't anger, then perhaps it is your drool seeping into the keyboard which has generated the fault?
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  197.  @Ole-sf4ps  What maths might they be, mon vieux?
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  198.  @Ole-sf4ps  Caps lock again. Spelling does not appear to be one of your undoubted strengths, either. I have become bored with poking a Bedlam inmate with a stick, and won't reply further. By the way, your candles in front of your print of 'Der Bannertrager' have gone out.
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  199. Indeed. Responding to a brutal attack by a terrorist regime.
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  200. Then perhaps you should look at the significant amount of time expended, and resources prepared, for the proposed operation.
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  201. The channel isn't, but it does seem to attract a number of neo half-wits and out and out trolls.
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  202. I'm sure the Dutch still believe that having Rotterdam carpet bombed by their German friends in 1940 was really for their own good.
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  203. Isn't invading Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, & Belgium not really the most obvious way of demonstrating peaceful intentions? Oh, and Barbarossa was more than six months later. Didn't your neo handbook tell you that, herr obergruppenfuhrer?
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  204. The effort the Germans went to in the second half of 1940 is sufficient proof in itself that you are wrong.
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  205. Britain had been an island for some time. It really shouldn't have come as an unexpected surprise to anyone.
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  206.  @iansneddon2956  As a German version of Captain Mainwaring might have said 'The Channel? Typical shabby British trick!'
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  207. What are?
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  208. 'Typical British arrogance and xenophobic rant regarding Joesph Kennedy the US ambassador to the UK.' FDR's opinion of Kennedy rather matched it. Why else would he have sent his Special Envoy, Bill Donovan, to London to find out a few facts which Kennedy had chosen not to mention?
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  209. Would having hundreds of barges and thousands of troops destroyed in the Channel by the Royal Navy really have been a good move? What vassals? Canada, Australia, & New Zealand were self-governing Dominions.
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  210. For decades it was said that Prime Minister Winston Churchill commanded the destruction all Colossus machines immediately after the end of the war. This rumour is evidently false, as Tony Sale, the builder of the reconstructed cryptographic machine, explains: “Eight of the ten Colossi were dismantled in Bletchley Park. Two went to Eastcote in North London and then to GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) at Cheltenham. These last two were dismantled in about 1960, and in 1960 all the drawings of Colossus were burnt, and its very existence was kept secret” (see Anthony Sale: The Colossus computer 1943–1996 and how it helped to break the German Lorenz cipher in WWII, M & M Baldwin, Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire 2011, pages 11–12).
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  211.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  I see that the nutcase is still around.
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  212.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Oh well. It it's 'OFFICIAL' then I stand corrected.
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  213. How was Churchill's alleged 'stupidity' relevant? Indeed, what was that stupidity?
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  214. Absolutely. That was why they followed a policy of appeasement in the 1930s, wasn't it?
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  215. How do they get the troops there, and how do they keep them supplied?
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  216.  @ryanstevens2722  The axis historically struggled to maintain the forces that they had in North Africa, and these were far smaller than those required, even theoretically, to attack the Middle East. Italian supply convoys were regularly intercepted by the RAF & the Royal Navy, and particularly by submarines and the Fleet Air Arm. Moreover, where would the supply ships actually come from? Most of the Italian merchant marine was trapped outside the Med. when Mussolini suddenly declared war, and the Germans could hardly help with their own small merchant fleet, which could not get through the Straits of Gibraltar. A limited amount of supply could be transported by air, but no heavy equipment such as trucks or tanks, and maintaining an army entirely by air is highly improbable, as rhe Luftwaffe was to demonstrate at Stalingrad.
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  217. Churchill didn't give any green light to anything. He was not in government between 1929 & September, 1939. Appeasement, by the way, was immensely popular after the horror that was WW1. P;anned to invade where, via Finland?
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  218.  sydmccreath4554  Perhaps you might explain why you have convinced yourself that the date might be relevant?
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  219.  @LewisDM  No, simply a statement of fact. The defeat of German & Italy was achieved by an alliance. Nor, of course, did the Americans save Britain, as your original post implied.
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  220. You don't think that the Royal Navy, with absoute supremacy in home waters, might have had an opinion about that? Especially since Germany had neither assault ships, nor even a serious navy?
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  221.  @iansneddon2956  In terms of operational major warships, the Kriegsmarine had one heavy cruiser, three light cruisers, seven destroyers, and seven torpedo boats (akin to British escort destroyers or the later US DEs) in mid September, 1940.
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  222.  @iansneddon2956  They could, but the German intention was that the cruisers would form part of Operation Herbstriese, a diversionary operation involving the three cruisers, a gunnery training ship, four liners, and eleven freighters, which would steam up and down the British East Coast between Newcastle & Aberdeen to suggest that a landing was intended there. This was intended to distract the Home Fleet, and prevent it intervening in the Channel. The irony, of course, was that Admiralty anti-invasion planning did not include the heavies of the Home Fleet in any case, unless German heavy ships seemed about to intervene. The British at the time of course did not know that only one heavy cruiser was operational. Moreover, the bulk of the Home Fleet had been moved to Rosyth (two battleships, one battlecruiser, three light cruisers, and seventeen destroyers). All were faster than the freighters that the Kriegsmarine intended to use, if not the liners, so if Herbstreise appeared, Sir Charles Forbes might well have been more than a little interested.
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  223.  @iansneddon2956  I agree. I am sure 'Autumn Voyage' would have achieved little or nothing. Other, perhaps, than the loss some of Germany's few remaining warships and larger merchantmen.
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  224. How do you attack an island defended by the largest navy in the world when, at the end of July, you had no landing craft, assault ships, or even a credible fleet. But you had just requisitioned 45 barges?
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  225. The USA only 'helped' after being attacked by Japan and finding that Germany had declared war.
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  226. Really? Why do you think that Sealion was never attempted?
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  227. What was brave about saying that Africans were an inferior race, who should not be permitted to vote, as Gandhi did? Plwasw feel entirely free to explain.
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  228. In 1940? Don't show more of your ignorance than is necessary.
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  229. By 'so many allies mixed in pulling nation upon nation into a global war' do you include Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, & Belgium, who all cunningly forced the noble Germans into invading them without declaration of war?
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  230.  @MarkHarrison733  Do you seriously deny that Germany took any of the actions I described earlier? By the way, even the stupidest of neos would not try to argue that Britain invaded Norway.
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  231. What was 'perfidious' about not capitulating?
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  232. So, how would you have suggested dealing with a nation which had systematically invaded much of Europe? Reasoned debate? Doesn't really work well against tanks and aircraft.
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  233. By 1941 the threat had ended. Enigma decrypts, by the way, never gave access to the minds of the German leadership, unlike the later Lorenz machines. Enigma always functioned at a tactical level, whereas Lorenz was strategic.
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  234. Well, he was wrong.
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  235.  @greggiles7309  Nonsense.
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  236.  @walterCronkitesleftshoe6684  Not to mentional 'colonialist' and 'imperialist.'
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  237. Largely because Germany had attacked, invaded, or declared war on most of it.
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  238.  @AaronKelly-s8l  No. France & Britain declared war, as they warned they would, because Germany invaded Poland. India declared war because it was part of the British Empire, whilst Canada, Australia, & New Zealand did because, as independent Dominions, they chose to express their allegiance to their mother Country. Neither France nor Britain declared war in defence of Polish independence, but as a last attempt to avert a wider European war by blocking further German military aggression. Germany and Japan subsequently expanded the war, Germany by declaring war on the United States, and Japan by bombing Pearl Harbor. Nor did Britain, or come to that the United States, Canada, or France, 'let the USSR occupy Poland.' That was already a fait accompli. Either you are astonishingly ignorant of a few facts, or you are simply a crazed neo. I don't really care which.
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  239. You presumably don't think that British & Commonwealth pilots might have played some part, however, small and unimportant, in Fighter Command's success, then?
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  240. Yes, little chap. Please outline in detail precisely how helpful the US was in 1940, apart from selling munitions to Britain at the full market rate. Don't, by the way, feel that you must lash out at your allies because of 'America's' recent defeat by a gang of medieval thugs in Afghanistan, however distressed it seems to have made you.
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  241. The vast majority of allied pilots in the Battle of Britain were British & Commonwealth. Radar yes, but as part of a wider air defence system. Enigma didn't become relevant so early, and was tactical rather than strategic. There was no two front war in 1940. But you miss the actual primary reason, which was the Royal Navy.
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  242.  @seanh6097  By 'nearly' 300' I assume you refer to the official figure of 203.5? Any plan for invasion had been abandoned well before June 1941. The barge concentrations were being dispersed from late 1940 onwards. Ultra decrypts gave insight into tactical matters, but not strategic ones.
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