XPost: soc.history.what-if, alt.history.what-if   
   From: aspqrz@tpg.com.au   
      
   On Sun, 17 Nov 2019 15:15:35 +1100, SolomonW    
   wrote:   
      
   >On Sun, 17 Nov 2019 12:47:08 +1100, Phil McGregor wrote:   
   >   
   >> and Goering didn't   
   >> know that they were falling further and further behind the RAF *at the   
   >> time*   
   >   
   >Hermann Göring would not have known these figures, but he did know that   
   >something was going wrong. At Nuremberg, he stated that the losses were   
   >sustainable and he could have kept going but what mucked up the NAZIs was   
   >the lack of shipping for Sealion. If so, the question is, what was the   
   >point of this air war?   
      
   He wouldn't have known the RAF figures, sure, but he knew the   
   Luftwaffe figures weren't sustainable ... but afaict he believed the   
   RAF losses were equally unsustainable, so he seems to have believed   
   there was some degree of Luftwaffe victory when, in fact, it was (as   
   we now know) a clear defeat and the beginning of the end of the German   
   air force.   
      
   Hitler certainly didn't seem to believe the losses were sustainable in   
   the face of prep for Barbarossa.   
      
   What was the point of the BoB from the Nazi PoV?   
      
   I am not entirely sure the Nazis had a clear agenda, or not a clear   
   single agenda.   
      
   I *think* there is evidence that Hitler suffered a version of 'victory   
   disease' and believed that he could actually stage Sealion ... which   
   the Kriegsmarine, at least, had a pretty good idea they couldn't, and   
   tried repeatedly to tell High Command and Hitler, who completely   
   ignored them.   
      
   I *think* that there is also evidence that Hitler believed that the   
   BoB and the threat of Sealion would force the UK to negotiate a peace   
   favourable to Germany even though there isn't any real evidence that   
   the UK would ever have considered such and a lot of historical   
   evidence to suggest the exact opposite.   
      
   I am pretty sure that Hitler had some inkling that leaving an   
   unconquered or at least unemasculated UK at his rear for Barbarossa   
   was not a good idea ... after all, the reason for the attack in the   
   West was because he believed that a two front European war was largely   
   what had led to Germany's defeat in WW1. Of course, this notion was   
   impacted by the 'victory disease' and by the fact that the BoB wasn't   
   seen to be a clear German defeat *at the time* so he eventually seems   
   to have convinced himself that leaving an unconquered UK in his rear   
   was no biggie ... an unfortunate delusion.   
      
   Phil McGregor   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)