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

[Six Nifty .50s]

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

I am rapidly loosing any faith in Mr. Tooze's book when I see quotes likes this - I cannot help but to note that he has some sort of pre-conception

I've never read Tooze but the gist of his overall message, as it was explained to me here, is nothing new.

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

I mean, 'militarily weak neighbours' - like France..?

If that is his statement, it is very accurate.

Who can dispute that compared to Germany, France was militarily weak in leadership, forming a national strategy, planning, communications, command and control, training, combined arms, use of airpower, and tactical employment of their forces.

You might be thinking about the paper strength of the French war machine, circa 1940, but that tells us very little about their true capabilities. And I'd rather not get into endless debates about the technical effectiveness of weapon systems, because that was the least of their problems.

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

And what was 'extremely one sided' when the defender's losses practically matched that of the attackers (ie. ca 1600 RAF planes vs ca 1700 LW planes lost to all causes in the Battle)

Except that German flyers shot down over the U.K did not often return to fight another day. A very long period of time was/is required to properly train and replace experienced pilots and air crews.

Originally Posted by Kurfürst

As for the air forces, its debatable, but what now begins to appear to me as the standard Tooze nonsense about some sort of 'agricultural Germany' in the 1930s that lacks the industrial resources.. the political decision certainly was not taken to ramp up production - probably it was a mistake and would be needed to be made, not waiting until 1943 - still it seems it was sufficient to cover the losses.

Cover the losses when ... which factories and training bases could make this happen in 1940?

Never mind the calendar length of the air campaign, the loss rate per sortie is what counts. It's not realistic that the Luftwaffe could continue losing men and equipment at that pace and still maintain the size of their air fleets for anything but a short period.