Then the “Unlike you I have commitments outside this forum”. Where did that come from? Why the need for that sneering comment? You know nothing about my life outside the forum.
It came from the fact that if I don't instantly respond to your posts, you're considering your point validated.
1. It was you turned the last friendly debate sour with the intended put down “You've evidently watched the Battle of Britain just too many times……” comment. Clearly from what was subsequently written there was only one of us that could be accused of that. All you came up with during the conversation was the same lazy, tired, worn out comment about the RAF on its last knees…. Then there was you – a WITP-AE player!! no less – suggesting that the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen could have been combat ready for Sealion, not to mention all the RN capital ships sunk off Crete…..
2. Then of course there was the delightful “embarrassing for you” when once again all I did was to make a comment to highlight that the RN were not going to cower in port because the enemy had aircraft – and I backed that up with actual examples. But you chose to miss the point as usual and again tried to make out I was writing some pseudo propaganda piece.
Finally I see you continue – even now – to simply ignore what I have written. As said above there are only two reasons for that and, as also said I do not think you are being stupid so……
Again, because I think you've a viewpoint colored by rose tinted glasses that prevents you from being objective when it comes to evaluating the situation.
The fact remains that a significant proportion of RN assets were based well away from the invasion zone. While that isn't "cowering in port" by any standards, it hardly strikes me as ships that are positions to interfere with a landing at the first opportunity.
Of course. Different ships different purposes. The Home Fleet as I have said a billion times would not have been used straight off and, when Sealion proves to be a total failure, they will remain where they are.
Good.
The running to Canada exaggeration was in frustrated response to the fact that whatever I write, however I express it, you keep saying I envisage a Charge of the Light Brigade, all guns blazing approach to the invasion from the Home Fleet. I have not said that, I said the exact opposite on about half a dozen occasions over the two threads.
Good.
My mere proposition that started all this off was that the RN wouldn't throw everything into the balance in the event of Sealion.
So 5% is a good chance of success yes?
Under the circumstances, yes. A 1-20 chance of knocking out a major world naval power? Well worth the gamble, even more so when you consider the relative ease that the Germans could replace their losses against those losses inflicted on the RN.
Oh and also the quite bizarre reference to the French navy:
“Now, I'm not saying the RN wouldn't have opposed Sealion, merely that I don't think they wouldn't have been been sending anything that was armed and could float against the Germans. Think less of the Yamato sailing to it'd fate, and more of the Marine National following the Fall of France”.
Why what could they have done – sailed the Dunkerque and Strasbourg up the Seine? The defence of France and the UK/Japan are a tad different – two are islands and one isn’t….
You may want to read up on the problems the Marine National caused both the Germans and the Allies after the Fall of France.
My point, which I must say I didn't make quite clear, was that the ships loyal to the Vichy French regime represented a bargaining chip that they used to come to terms with the Germans, as well as proving instrumental in maintaining their colonial holdings (or those that kept loyal to the Vichy government anyways).
The inference, then, is that assuming the worst case scenario in the event of Sealion, the British government would have some credible naval presence in the event of talks. In the grand scheme, however, this was at best a minor strategic consideration.
The more likely consideration would be to defend the colonies against other nations: read, Japan.
This would be at night so your vaunted Luftwaffe and the cowardly and quite useless RAF are not factors. In both cases - Slapton Sands and Crete, the enemy had air supremacy by the way, and in both cases the attacking units fought some distance from where they were based.
See, flip that, and that's how I view your attitude.
At the end of the day, we can beat ourselves to death objectively assessing the evidence, but I think it is far better to look at how it was view at the time: the massive British anti-invasion preparations tell us that the British leadership of the time evidently thought it was a real danger.
