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blitzkrieg
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23 Dec 2021, 3:17 pm

Radar was a huge advantage for Britain, in the 'Battle of Britain' back in 1940.

British planes were technologically inferior, had pilots that weren't trained as well in warfare, and were outnumbered at least 2 to 1 in number (by German planes) - by some estimations.

But what does any of that matter if you can anticipate your 'enemies' and their moves? 8)

Enemies can become allies. It's the art of war.


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maycontainthunder
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23 Dec 2021, 3:28 pm

Recently I was watching a program on radar. The Germans made a catastrophic error... we chose a low frequency while they were looking for something much higher when they sent an airship to have a look. The low frequency was mistaken for Britain's mains power network!

The Germans may have been extremely clever but that lacked creativity. Look up Operation Mincemeat for an example of the level of trickery we Brits partook in.



blitzkrieg
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23 Dec 2021, 3:31 pm

maycontainthunder wrote:
Recently I was watching a program on radar. The Germans made a catastrophic error... we chose a low frequency while they were looking for something much higher when they sent an airship to have a look. The low frequency was mistaken for Britain's mains power network!

The Germans may have been extremely clever but that lacked creativity. Look up Operation Mincemeat for an example of the level of trickery we Brits partook in.


Haha, now you are getting it!

You can have all of the cleverness in the world but a lot of the time, creative solutions win the day if you can survive not killing yourself first. :D


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funeralxempire
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23 Dec 2021, 5:29 pm

-109s were a few minutes away from bingo fuel by the time they were over Britain. Not to diminish the accomplishment but Spitfire and Hurricane pilots had a huge advantage as a result of this.


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naturalplastic
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23 Dec 2021, 9:08 pm

There were many factors.

Despite the radar Hitler was still kicking some ass in the air over Britain until the one first time the RAF bombed Berlin ( in retaliation for the Germans accidently bombing a civilian area of London). And then Hitler got so angry that the Brits bombed his capital that he immediately stopped attacking airbases themselves, and attacking factories that manufactured planes and anti aircraft guns (he never even attacked radar stations), and threw his airforce into bombing the city of London and its civilian population. He killed a lot of civilians but it actually helped the RAF to defeat the Luftwaffe by allowing to engage it over the city instead of having to save its own airbases. Hitler let his ego and vindictiveness best his strategic judgement.



Last edited by naturalplastic on 23 Dec 2021, 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

cyberdad
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23 Dec 2021, 9:33 pm

The Germans did dominate British skies for a while but there were other factors involved as well in why they never launched a land invasion across the British Isles.

The Germans also had problems with refuelling/supplies, This was a similar problem they had on the eastern front where the lines of supply were stretched having too few men to hold a large land area, particularly during the Russian winter.

The Romans also eventually fell for the same reason the moment their troops were forced to tackle new invaders (goths, huns, Avars and visigoths) they were forced to withdraw from Britain.