Need assistance: Role of the Luftwaffe/Germany in the Battle of Britain?

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by FalkeEins

..Isn't the absence of a strategy perhaps an indication that the 'battle', as we Brits like to understand it, was never any such thing in German eyes ... the Luftwaffe didn’t lose the ‘battle’ (at least that is my understanding ) because there was no ’battle’ worthy of the name.

I repeat, what were they trying to achieve and did they achieve it? If the latter, was the gain proportionate to the human and material resources expended — let alone the economic cost of pulling all those barges off Europe's inland waterways and assembling them as sitting targets for the RAF bombers?

As for the "myth" the primary sources leave no doubt whatsoever that the British believed the threat to be absolutely real and imminent and deployed their resources accordingly. Maybe the Luftwaffe weren't trying their hardest but they were still losing aircraft faster than they could produce them and they appear to have gained absolutely nothing in return.