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>Big navy warships are extremely vulnerable to air attack. Plenty of examples in WW2. That's true. But there were also plenty of British submarines, destroyers
by hermitcrab 3y ago
>Big navy warships are extremely vulnerable to air attack. Plenty of examples in WW2.
That's true. But there were also plenty of British submarines, destroyers, gunboats, MTBs and other smaller ships. Also Germany didn't have much in the way of specialized maritime attack aircraft (IIRC because Herman Goering didn't want any competition from the German Navy).
The RN certainly would have taken heavy losses from German aircraft, submarines and naval mines (which were planned to be sown both sides of the invasion corridor). But it's hard to imagine that they could have landed enough troops and supplies against a far superior naval force without proper amphibious landing ships. Imagine trying to get tanks and artillery ashore from a barge.
- WalterBright 3y agoA Stuka sank a Soviet cruiser with one bomb. The Bismarck was crippled by one torpedo fired by a stringbag. Besides, I never heard anything about the British defenses against an invasion. The D-Day shore defenses were epic, but breached in a day.
- hermitcrab 3y agoThere were pillboxes, tank traps, barbed wire and minefields. Both on the coast and inland. For example there were defensive 'stop lines': https://www.hiddenwiltshire.com/post/wiltshire-walks-along-the-stop-line-green https://www.hiddenwiltshire.com/post/wiltshire-walks-along-t... But it wasn't on the scale of the 'Atlantic wall'. Trivia fact. They removed road signs during the war, to make it harder for an invading force to work out where they were. It also made it harder for British people to get around!
- Steve44 3y agoIn addition to the Stop Lines the other poster has mentioned, there were a number of Auxiliary Units set up. These were undocumented groups with their own arms bunker storing 'terrorist' and assassination weapons whose job was to cause chaos and disruption should we be invaded. These were dotted all over the country, including up in Scotland. They had all sorts of specialised and experimental weaponry, the links below cover some of the details. My late father was involved in their decommissioning as part of his National Service in the very late 1940s. https://parhamairfieldmuseum.co.uk/british-resistance-organisation/ https://parhamairfieldmuseum.co.uk/british-resistance-organi... http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/other-wwii-defensive-structures/auxiliary-units/ http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/other-wwii-defensive-s... https://www.staybehinds.com/ https://www.staybehinds.com/
- hermitcrab 3y agoThere was a recent history hit podcast about this. Apparently their first job on invasion was to assassinate anyone who knew where their arms were stored, including local British officials and ex-members of the unit. Given how secret it all was, I wonder how many of their arms and explosives caches are still hidden in the British countryside.
- WalterBright 3y agoRommel's Afrika Korp did very well against the British and the fixed defenses the British had built. The Korp was supplied entirely by sea and air. The Korp eventually was overwhelmed because: 1. The British were far better supplied with troops and equipment (also shipped in) 2. The Korp used Enigma, which the British had cracked. With that, the British knew where every German supply ship was and when, and sank most of it. They also knew Rommel's battle plans in advance. The U-Boot fleet was also lost because of Enigma.