Battle of Britain

History channel being one of my favorites, I just watch a documentary on the Battle of Britain. In the US we are mostly taught on events post Pearl Harbor. 2500 german planes versus just 650 English. That is more then a 4 to 1 count.

The spitfires were impressive. Germans left their Bombers unprotected and the English just pick them apart. The thought of having the Nazis so close to your shores.

Has anyone, or know anyone, who has found any debris or other artifacts left over from those battles on their property? Interesting.

I can't believe the carnage England went through and the US ignored for so long. Funny how times have changed. Someone sneezes and Bush is sending aircraft carriers of their shores.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2007 07:33PM by bones1834.

Oops. Meant to but this in the "off topic" forum. Sorry.

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bones1834 Wrote:
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> I can't believe the carnage England went through
> and the US ignored for so long.

This is not an uncommon US attitude. Ever watched "Saving Private Ryan"? Try an find just ONE ally that is not American. The British also do share some of this attitude, as they put the emphasis their efforts, battles and losses. However, all of it is dwarfed by the carnage on the Eastern front. WW2 was for most purposes, fought, won and payed for (in money as well as in lives) by the Russians.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Definitely, the Russians suffered HUGE losses. Photos from the war when Russia got into Berlin are scaryily eerie, some of the creepiest I've ever seen.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

And I guess the effects of WW2 on Russia very much set the tone for the next few years, ie cold war.

Although Russia did suffer huge losses, the Germans also did while taking on Russia, firstly the Germans chose the wrong time to attack lol.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Spitfires were indeed awesome, but it was really the Hawker Hurricanes which won us the Battle of Britain

Plus the fact that our pilots were the nuts.

All the fronts I'm sure were just terrible, but from what I've read, the eastern front just sounded horrific

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

I've never found any debris, normally we just get the odd unexploded bomb or grenade in gardens nowadays. I think the battlefields of France and Belgium are where you get more debris rising to the surface like the bodies of British soldiers missing and presumed dead.

I remember a few years ago seeing an ad for a show on Channel 4 I think it was about some show planning to dig up a part of London to see if they could uncover a crashed WW2 Spitfire that was said to have crashed there. It may have been Time Team. I never actually saw it.

And the guy in the link never fought in the Battle Of Britain since the defence chiefs of the time considered him too valuable a test pilot. What a guy and how heart wrenching it must have been for him to see his fellow fighter pilots defend their countries against the Germans and he wasn't allowed to help them out.

[news.bbc.co.uk]

My uncle was in the same position, he was a test pilot for the latest Sea Harrier developments for the British Royal Navy. He was also the number 1 to drive Thrust SSC over Andy Green.

He wasn't allowed to go off to the Falklands because he was considered too valuable - all your life you train for something and to be told you can't go - needless to say he was gutted.

He crashed and died in 1994 though, some problem with the plane over a Somerset test flight. He steered it away from a town choosing to risk his life staying int he cockpit for a few extra seconds to veer it towards a field as opposed to a car park and a Sainsburys ina town centre.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

A chap that i used to live near is a massive collector of WW2 debris. He regularly goes wading in the Thames Estuary, and some of his finds are amazing - he had a more or less intact Messerschmitt (sp?) engine in his garden, complete with prop, for about a year.

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Interesting. What were the London causualties? I know Berlin had more then it's share.

Hmmmm yeah Russia's losses were huge, really huge! When America, Britain and Canada finally invaded most of the Germans were indeed fighting in the Eastern Front at the time... But a major part of the Russian's losses were also put down to their Generals lack of tactics, the mentality of the Russians were still World War 1 Mentality of charge on the positions and no falling back. Granted it worked but it caused really heavy losses.


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

tbf if the Russians had adapted quicker imo they should have won against the germans, the germans main losses against russia was against the weather i believe.

Russia obviously had the advantage of being used to it.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Russia did win.... :S



RedSam
Winner: Not the Nickv Comment of the Year 2009
Due to the voting system in Germany, Governments are always made up of coalitions of different parties. At the last election, an almost unprecidented result saw the CDU/CSU (rough equivilant of the Conservatives) go into Government with the SPD (rough equivilant of Labour)

Cheers Sam, was about to make that point.

If you an call it winning - have aread about the battle of Stalingrad, its just awful what people had ot go through to survive

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She says brief things, her love’s a pony
My love’s subliminal

Ianwoollam schreef:
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> Hmmmm yeah Russia's losses were huge, really huge!
> When America, Britain and Canada finally invaded
> most of the Germans were indeed fighting in the
> Eastern Front at the time... But a major part of
> the Russian's losses were also put down to their
> Generals lack of tactics, the mentality of the
> Russians were still World War 1 Mentality of
> charge on the positions and no falling back.
> Granted it worked but it caused really heavy
> losses.

Here are the losses. First number is the number of soldiers died and the second is the number of civillians died.

USSSR..........13 000 000........7 000 000
China.........3 500 000..........10 000 000
Germany.............3 500 000..........3 800 000
Poland..........120 000...........5 300 000
Japan.........1 700 000.........380 000
Yugoslavia...........300 000.........1 300 000
Roemenia...........200 000............465 000
France...........250 000........360 000
British Empire (UK incl. colonies and Commonwealth)........452 000 ..........60 000
Italy........330 000..........80 000

And the lack of tactics was due to Stalin. He executed all the good generals because they might be a threat to his position.

Nickv Wrote:
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> And the lack of tactics was due to Stalin. He
> executed all the good generals because they might
> be a threat to his position.

Exacly, so all Russia could do was stay stuck in the stone ages of Warfare, so even though it was a win, it may have well been a loss for Russia.


PSN/Xbox 360 ID - Ianwoollam

i thought japan would have had a far heavier civillian death toll considering the two nuclear bombs that were dropped.

NeilPearson Wrote:
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> i thought japan would have had a far heavier
> civillian death toll considering the two nuclear
> bombs that were dropped.


That said, it is estimated that as many as 140,000 had died in Hiroshima by the bomb and its associated effects,[1][2][3] with the estimate for Nagasaki roughly 74,000.

From [en.wikipedia.org]

wow thats crazy.

Japan was very lucky