few questions about ww2

jamesmorris86 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:53

im having a bit of a drunken debate and i need some help to win or loose it

can someone please explain why germany never invaded england?

and did we have the defenses to hold them off, or if they invaded, would they have walked all over us?

cheers for any help guys

Jono8 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:54

Basically, our airforce was awesome.

firthy15 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:54

Think they had only just got a foothold over most of france when we did operation overload and invaded france also think the battle of britain over the skies meant it was not possible to launch an effective invasion force without it getting destroyed by our fighters / bombers.

unclebob123 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:55

They would have liked to have invaded us, but being an island country it made that very difficult for them.

Burnsy2023 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:56

Basically, we were VERY lucky.

Jono8 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:57

Burnsy2023 said:
Basically, we were VERY lucky.

and this

Nix · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:57

Luck, missed opportunities and the fact that Hitler resepected Britain and wanted her on Germany's side.

Greenlizard0 · 31 Jul 2009 at 22:58

Burnsy2023 said:
Basically, we were VERY lucky.

Yeap, if memory serves correct if Hitler had invaded after the battle of Britain we'd have been buggered.

Or if they'd bombed our military areas instead of our cities and towns too.

Jono8 · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:01

Also. Hitler was rubbish and should have let his generals run the war. Germany probably would have won if he did that.

Ricochet J · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:02

Read Operation Sea Lion. Germany intended to invade Britain but first they had to overcome our naval presence in the British Channal, North Sea and Irish Sea. Our navy was impressive and wasn't easy to take down. Secondly they had to take down our air superiority. We might have been out numbered, but we had a lot more men with flying experience and much better planes. Two things that the Luftwaffe did not have. Thirdly, they had to decide which was more important. Concentrating their efforts in taking over the UK or expand eastward and take over Russia. If successful, they would come back and easily take the UK since we would have no eastern allies.

They attempted to take Russia under the operation name Barberossa. Many historians believe Operation Barberossa was Hitlers downfall.

izzy eckerslike · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:02

Nearest they got was the Channel islands

-BA- · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:02

Nix said:
Luck, missed opportunities and the fact that Hitler resepected Britain and wanted her on Germany's side.

This ^^. Hitler actually wanted us as allies and it was his invasion of Poland that drew us into the war. His penchant for killing millions of innocent people would have almost certainly drawn us in at some point but the Blitz absolutely pounded Britain and we were at breaking point when the Americans were drawn into the war. Conspiracy theorists even think that Pearl Harbour was "allowed" to happen in order to create the public outcry in America that brought their forces to Europe. We were months away from going under.

Vulcan · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:04

jamesmorris86 said:
and did we have the defenses to hold them off, or if they invaded, would they have walked all over us?

Of course! Haven't you ever seen Dad's Army?

Greenlizard0 · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:05

Longbow said:
Of course! Haven't you ever seen Dad's Army?

Lol, once they're onland ...well..that's it.

I mean even in France on their way over the only obstacle was :

TheCenturion · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:06

as already said, this is an island, so it's difficult to reach, and what with britain having a good airforce it would have been too risky.

Also they weren't quite finished in france so they were working their way up but never quite made it.

Facepalm for the nazis

Will Lucky · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:08

-BA- said:
Conspiracy theorists even think that Pearl Harbour was "allowed" to happen in order to create the public outcry in America that brought their forces to Europe. We were months away from going under.

Well, when America decided to put an Embargo on oil trade to Japan they knew it was only a matter of time before the Japanese attacked.

unclebob123 · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:10

The Royal Navy also sunk a good proportion of Frances Navy to stop Germany seizing the vessles and using them against us. In the process I think Britian killed 1300 french sailors.

Attu90 · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:10

Hitler wanted England as allies rather than an enemy as we still controlled most of the world and our Royal family are descendants of the master race.

Im sure the Battle of Britain had some thing to do with it as well

but I don't think he was 100% behind the idea of invading England which is probably why he gave up on the idea so easily.

Nix · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:12

Most of our forces were mobilised elsewhere, so fighting them off indefinitely is a bit of a fantasy. That said though, with the assets we did have: I don't think we would've made it easy. It's a bit of a counter-factual so we only really have speculation and educated guesses, but if defending the homeland become the sole concern, things could have become very interesting. Saying that though, Britain were one of the Unitied State's main economic partners so I doubt they would've been able to sit back indefinitely as their status quo was rocked.

If Britain was invaded, the war would've been dragged out that much longer and the Axis powers were only really, minutes behind us in terms of developing the atom-bomb. Couple that with their advanced weaponry programmes; we were very lucky to finish the war when we did.

Busa · 31 Jul 2009 at 23:12

Hitler hated the Russians and destroying them was more important to him