[David Ransome]

As far as I am concerned the German intention to invade was there, the spirit to do so was sadly lacking in some of the Wehrmacht hierarchy.

The only area that the Heer couldn't fight on was the English Channel and that is why control of the air was crucial. The major failings of German air intelligence only became obvious to them later on in the Battle period after which the cohesion of the Wehrmacht arms of service, that had worked fairly well together up to June 1940, began to fail. I feel certain that Goering honestly thought that the Luftwaffe couldn't fail to achieve their ultimate objective and, being the type of person he was at this stage of the war, had the energy, charisma and backing of the Fuhrer to convince his Generals of this.

Too many people studying this part of the war fail to consider many of the other things going on behind the scenes with other elements of the German state, things which took up a lot of manpower and other resources, which point to a genuine intention to invade. I don't want to even try to justify my comments on this here but suffice it to say that Kriegsmarine, Heer, SS, DRK and RAD records - to name but a few - are definitely worthy of study for this period.

By any stretch of the imagination the Battle of Britain, or whatever one wants to call that period, was indeed a battle even based purely on the amount of men, women, children, property and materiel lost.

David