The Battle of Britain

**Zippy** · 28 August 2010, 18:48

And the really terrible thing is that it was much worse than the film showed.

**TimberWolf** · 28 August 2010, 19:05

The theme tune is a bit mediocre. Here is proper war film music:

**TimberWolf** · 28 August 2010, 19:12

And some baddies music:

Star Wars and Wagner's Ring compared

**MrMark** · 28 August 2010, 19:12

"Repeat, Please!"

Fantastic!

**NickFitz** · 28 August 2010, 19:41

There's a season of programmes about the Battle of Britain coming up soon on BBC TV. BBC2 has a new drama-documentary based on Geoffrey Wellum's memoirs First Light. He was one of the youngest fighter pilots in the battle, having joined the RAF straight from school, aged 17, two months before the war started. After training he was immediately posted to 92 Squadron in May 1940, who were based at Biggin Hill at the height of the battle, right in the front line.

I've recently re-read his book, and highly recommend it. Hopefully the BBC will do it justice.

**EternalOptimist** · 28 August 2010, 19:46

From a strategic point of view, (and with a lot of hindsight) the battle of Britain was a battle that need not, and should not , have been fought.
If the object was to prevent an invasion of Britain, by denying the enemy air superiority, a better plan would have been to put the fighters into storage, up north, then unlease them on invasion day.

**MrMark** · 28 August 2010, 20:01

Originally posted by EternalOptimist View Post

From a strategic point of view, (and with a lot of hindsight) the battle of Britain was a battle that need not, and should not , have been fought.
If the object was to prevent an invasion of Britain, by denying the enemy air superiority, a better plan would have been to put the fighters into storage, up north, then unlease them on invasion day.

Blimey - Churchill got enough "flak" as it was for allowing the Germans to bomb Coventry (otherwise letting them know we'd cracked the Enigma codes). I don't think realistically you could have allowed Goering's mob free rein at Kent and London - they did enough damage even with the Raf fighting back.

**EternalOptimist** · 28 August 2010, 20:12

Originally posted by MrMark View Post

Blimey - Churchill got enough "flak" as it was for allowing the Germans to bomb Coventry (otherwise letting them know we'd cracked the Enigma codes). I don't think realistically you could have allowed Goering's mob free rein at Kent and London - they did enough damage even with the Raf fighting back.

Absolutely right.
From a strategic point of view (ie saving Britain) we should have pulled back, from a political point of view (ie saving the governemnt) we fought the battle of Britain.

But it doesnt take a genius to see a third way, e.g Stalin was able , many times, to sacrifice massive dollops of his civilian infrastructure in order to guarantee strategic success.

**shaunbhoy** · 28 August 2010, 20:14

In reality, our fighter pilots were generally advised to steer clear of dogfights with the Jerry fighters, and concentrate their efforts on the bombers.
Strategically, it was an immensely pragmatic and sensible course of action, as we could not afford the losses that the numerically superior Luftwaffe could have endured.
Not sure the Battle of Britain is always depicted this accurately, but I suppose "What the Heck? We won so we will decide how it all panned out!!"

The Battle of Britain