P-40 vs. Hurricane

[Soren]

Originally Posted by DerAdlerIstGelandet

A little late commenting on this but here we go. Sorry I completely disagree with you. The British may have been close to being beaten but they would not give up. The British have never given up and they would not have int he BoB. They would have fought to the end and if worse were to happen they already had plan in place to move the government to Canada and evacuate as much of the military as possible. The British would not have given up.

A little late ?

Anyway, in light of Bungay's research, I'll have to agree with you.

However "If" the RAF was defeated, then the British would infact have given up shortly after, or face annihilation. However according to Bungay's work, the RAF wasn't really ever that close to defeat as some Historians like to depict it.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Given up! if the RAF had gone the Royal Navy would've loved nothing more than to show why they were the biggest and best navy in the world at the time by destroying the invasion force during the crossing! yes they would've taken heavy losses from aircraft, but that would've mattered if we stopped the invasion, ok, so, if we hadn't stopped the invasion, every single person within 50 miles of the coast that could hold and fire a gun would have gone to the coast and literally waited for the germans, even if they weren't trained soldiers, we rather like not being invaded, given we haven't been for nearly 1000 years, ok, so if the germans did get a bridgehead, knowing us we still wouldn't give up, we'd only try to beat them back again and again.........

[Gnomey]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

Given up! if the RAF had gone the Royal Navy would've loved nothing more than to show why they were the biggest and best navy in the world at the time by destroying the invasion force during the crossing! yes they would've taken heavy losses from aircraft, but that would've mattered if we stopped the invasion, ok, so, if we hadn't stopped the invasion, every single person within 50 miles of the coast that could hold and fire a gun would have gone to the coast and literally waited for the germans, even if they weren't trained soldiers, we rather like not being invaded, given we haven't been for nearly 1000 years, ok, so if the germans did get a bridgehead, knowing us we still wouldn't give up, we'd only try to beat them back again and again.........

Very true lanc, very true.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

the only real chance they had of making us surrender wasn't to invade but to surround, to cut off all our supplies coming in and starve us out........

[Gnomey]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

the only real chance they had of making us surrender wasn't to invade but to surround, to cut off all our supplies coming in and starve us out........

Which they tried with the U-boats and failed (only just) to succeed.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

so i think people are wrong when they say that without fighter command we'd give up, we might not win, but we would fight to the last man......

[FLYBOYJ]

Back on topic.....

"In Italy the 325 Fighter Group, commonly know as "The Checker-Tailed Clan" amassed one of the best kill to loss ratios of any fighter group in the European Theater. With a yellow and black checkerboard adorning the tail of their P-40s (and later P-47s and P-51s), they flew many sorties against more numerous German forces, and won most of the time. In 1943 the 325th won two major engagements. On July 1, 22 checker-tailed P-40s were making a fighter sweep over southern Italy when they were jumped by 40 Bf-109s. After an intense air battle, the result was half of the German aircraft shot down for the loss of a single P-40. There was a similar situation on the 30th of July, again over Italy, when 35 Bf-109s ambushed 20 P-40s. On this occasion, 21 German fighters were shot down, again for the loss of a single P-40. Because the pilots of the 325th were trained to maximize the P-40's strengths and minimize its weaknesses, it became a lethal opponent for the German fighters. The final record of "The Checker-Tailed Clan's" P-40s was 135 Axis planes shot down (96 were Bf-109s), for only 17 P-40s lost in combat"

[cheddar cheese]

Wow, thats pretty amazing!

[wmaxt]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

so i think people are wrong when they say that without fighter command we'd give up, we might not win, but we would fight to the last man......

It would/will take much more than the loss of the RAF as a whole to make the British give up. They don't know how to quit anymore than we do!

wmaxt

[Gnomey]

That is pretty interesting FBJ.

[evangilder]

Did someone mention the Checkertailed clan?

[Gnomey]

Nice pic Eric!

[FLYBOYJ]

Nice Eric, thanks Gnomey!

[Soren]

Originally Posted by the lancaster kicks ass

so i think people are wrong when they say that without fighter command we'd give up, we might not win, but we would fight to the last man......

Lanc without an airforce, even the mighty RN would have been reduced to almost nothing in matter of weeks, if not days. There is no other weapon more effective against naval forces than aircraft.

It might take a long time before the British would have given up, but without an airforce eventually they would have.

At any rate its not worth discussing it, as the RAF was infact never beaten and even at the time where it was close to, the LW was closer.

[evangilder]

Thanks Joe and Gnomey! Great info there too, Joe!