Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Thompson
Hello Juha,
The German advantage of interior lines was not as significant as it may appear. They did not have a significant merchant marine, even on internal seas like the Baltic, so they had to rely almost exclusively on railways for the transfer of large forces. The British were guilty of over-insurance for most of the war, after the shock of 1940. By mid-1941 they could easily have spared a dozen Spitfire squadrons for the Mediterranean without adversely affecting the strategic balance in the West, even if Soviet Union had collapsed by the end of the year. It would have been exceptionally difficult for the Germans to attempt an invasion in 1942, even with somewhat greater resources than in 1940.
Regards,
Paul
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HelloPaul
yes, but their air units were fairly mobile, if you look how they were tossed from one sector to other. On the other hand GB could get their Spits back from MTO only by the sea, straight from Suez and then around the Cape of Good Hope or flown via Takoradi Road to Takoradi and shipped from there. And that would surely have taken significantly longer than a transfer five Geschwadern of fighters and 6 of bombers from East in spring of 1942. LW also had qualitive edge in fighter equipment at that time and Hurricane was clearly obsolent against 109F. I agree that it would have been possible to send some Spit sqns, maybe 6 -7, to MTO.