...or a red herring?

I entirely agree with Anthony J Cumming’s refutation of the idea that the planned German invasion of Britain early in the Second World War was a real threat ( Letters, December). At that time no one seemed in the least concerned that a German invasion was possible, even when the church bells rang to indicate that an invasion had started. (That tolling was of course a false alarm.)

It’s also been suggested that a German attack could have been launched with paratroops. Had this been attempted, I can imagine the RAF having a field day destroying the lumbering Junkers Ju 52 troop-carrier planes. And if any attempt had been made to use gliders, the death toll would have been horrendous. The prerequisite to any attempt at invasion was dominance of the skies – something the Germans failed to achieve.

It has been said that, when the Germans called off their air attacks, the RAF was on the point of collapse. This doesn’t seem to fit the facts. At the end of the Battle of Britain, Allied fighter production was higher than losses, the real problem being the shortage of skilleds pilots. This problem was partiallyp solved by recruiting pilots fromf the Commonwealth and other European countries – in particular, Poland.

However, Britain still faced a serious threat – one that might have become reality if Hitler had been correct in his belief that the Soviet Union could be conquered in weeks. Had this happened, Germany would have had access to a huge quantity of raw materials, particularly oil. Derrick Holt, Oxford