Battle Of Britain question?

Question

Just before and during the Battle Of Britain when the Germans thought invading was immenent,where were the fleets of ships being kept at this time?
Did the ships recieve much damage due to the amount of bombers coming over the Channel?

Answer 1

The french coastline is littered with navigable rivers. The Germans were taking all the river barges and sea going vessels they could scrounge up and hiding them in all these outlets, canals, hardors and rivers that spilled into the ocean. Operation Sealion was never really given full support, for in 1940 Hitler had already turned his eye on Russia.

Answer 2

The German advance pushed the Allied armies to the sea to a French port called Dunkirk. During what some people called a miracle, 800 small boats managed to lift most of the men off the beaches and back to England. The RAF were successful in keeping the majority of German bombers and fighters away, shooting down 150 aircraft. However, they lost 100 precious fighters and 80 irreplaceable pilots.


I couldn't find anything on the ships, but since there were so many little boats rescuing people and going back and forth across the English Channel they were obviously not there. There is mostly info on the airwar so maybe they didn't even have any ships around at that time and they didn't plan on using the ships in that Battle.

Answer 3

Large fleets of, particularly, landing craft were kept at French Channel ports, I'm not aware that there was much damage by British bombers - they weren't making that many sorties at the time. A google search of images for 'Operation Sea Lion' may throw up some photographs.

Answer 4

Luftwaffe attacks on Britain began with raids on naval targets, with bombers being shot down over the Firth of Forth on 16 October 1939 and over Scapa Flow on the following day, but there were no major attacks during the Phony War period, a lull in fighting that Hitler ended on 10 May 1940 with his invasion of the Low Countries.[12]

Following the evacuation of the British from Dunkirk (Operation DYNAMO) and the French surrender on 22 June 1940, Hitler believed the war was practically over and that the British, defeated on the continent and without European allies, would quickly be forced to come to terms with Germany.[13] Although there was an element of British public and political sentiment favouring negotiated peace with a clearly ascendant Germany, among them the Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, the recently-installed Prime Minister Winston Churchill nonetheless refused to consider an armistice with Hitler's Germany.[14] Churchill's skilful use of rhetoric hardened public opinion against a peaceful resolution and prepared the British for a long war. Coining the general term for the upcoming battle, Churchill stated in his 'This was their finest hour' speech to the House of Commons on 18 June 1940: "I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin."

In an effort to finish the war in the west, Hitler ordered the rapid preparation of an invasion of Britain on 16 July. Hitler hoped to frighten Britain into peace before an actual invasion was launched, and he used the invasion preparations as a means to apply pressure. The plan was prepared by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command). The operation, code-named Seelöwe (Sealion), was planned for mid-September 1940 and called for landings on the south coast of Great Britain, backed by an airborne assault. All preparations were to be made by mid-August.

The Kriegsmarine was reluctant to launch an invasion, and on 11 July, Admiral Raeder told Hitler invasion could only be contemplated as a last resort, and only then with full air superiority. The Kriegsmarine had a limited number of ships, while the Royal Navy had over 50 destroyers and dozens of cruisers and battleships in home waters. In the event of a seaborne invasion, the British Home Fleet would sortie from their nearby bases and attack the invasion force, something the Kriegsmarine could do little to counter. The only way Germany would be able to prevent Royal Navy interference would be through the Luftwaffe, primarily with their dive bombers, but employing these effectively would require complete air superiority because the bombers were so vulnerable to attack. Nevertheless, Hitler was determined the invasion go ahead and ordered all services to make preparations for an amphibious assault once air superiority had been achieved.

Answer 5

Hitler ordered the German fleet to remain in home waters in the North Sea and Baltic. They did not go into the channel. The Germans had to wait for the unrealized dream of getting air superiority to move their limited navy into range of both the British air and navy units.

Answer 6

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