THE REAL REASON BEHIND THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN AND WHY HITLER’S INVASION PLANS WERE FOILED
WE ARE not yet in August but 80 years ago that was the peak month of the Battle of Britain upon which the very existence of our country depended.
There have been commemorations already, including a three-night tribute documentary onTV.Yet nowhere have I seen a reference to the real reason for that crucial fight in the sky.
It was not about the Luftwaffe bombing of London – a stupid Nazi diversion which probably saved us all.The real reason is fascinating and only demonstrated many years ago in the magnificent film Battle of Britain, starring among others Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. It was the invasion barges. This is the story. Hitler had conquered western Europe with staggering speed and ease. His losses were minuscule.
One last detail (as he saw it) remained.The offshore island that is our home. One tiny (as he saw it) problem. Crossing 22 miles of Channel. Being a strategic idiot he thought it was just a very wide river. His admirals and generals knew better. They had never conducted a massive off-the-sea invasion against a hostile shore but they knew it was extremely difficult and refused to budge.
They needed to put to sea an invasion army in hundreds of landing craft. But they had none. It took the Allies two years to prepare for Normandy. Hitler had one short summer. So the Germans scoured all
Europe’s rivers and canals for barges and brought them to the coast. They jammed every port from Zeebrugge south to Dieppe.
But they were not real landing craft. Some had engines, most were open trailers to be towed in long columns behind tugs. But out on the open, choppy Channel they would be sitting ducks for roaming RAF fighters able to strafe them at will.The casualties would have been astronomical. With single skins punctured from the air they would have sunk like stones. Ditto the trucks, armoured cars, tanks, artillery pieces and stores they had to carry.The soldiers would have drowned without hope, weighed down by boots, helmets, rifles, ammunition and uniforms.
The generals refused point blank to leave the European shore until guaranteed there would be no British fighters above them.
That was when Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring made his pledge to wipe out Fighter Command before late September and winter.
As we know, he failed. Disgusted but still uncomprehending, Hitler turned to the Balkans and Russia.The barges, quite unseaworthy, went back to the still waters of the rivers and canals. By spring 1941 it was too late and remained so untilVE Day. Documentary makers should mention that the prevention of that invasion fleet ever leaving the shore that was the real reason for the battle in the sky that saved our country.