Churchill said.......

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

Norman, I wish I could say that I had read extensively about the second world war, but it was just one of those subjects that adults mentioned a lot when I was a child (I wouldn't leave the uterus until VE Day had passed and even then I "...was from (my) mother’s womb untimely ripped." as they said of McDuff) so was naturally of little interest.

 

Since then my interest has been stimulated to a degree by three films and a book: 'The Gathering Storm', 'Into the Storm', 'Conspiracy', and the book 'Fatherland. Each fascinating in their own right even if 'Fatherland' is a fiction.

[Norman Verona]

Bernie, 

 

Sorry to disagree. "Blitzkrieg" or Lightening war, refers to land troops using tanks and other mechanised transport. 

 

Hitler knew he had to destroy the Royal Air Force before he could launch the invasion. operation Sea Lion. The Luftwaffe, under the command of Goering, a first world war air ace, set about to destroy the RAF on the ground in the home counties. I won't go into why they were defeated, it wasn't as simple as we had the Spitfire and they didn't. Look up the Wikipedia entry on Hugh Dowding for a fuller explanation.. DOWDING

 

When Goering realised that he could not defeat the RAF, which had never thrown more that 50% of the available squadrons into the battle that he changed tactics and started what was called the Blitz. It is thought he did this under orders from Hitler.

 

In the event, whilst a mass of shipping was collected at the French channel ports Hitler called off Sea Lion in favour of Barborossa, the invasion of Russia.

 

I could point you to numerous tomes on the subject but they are very dry, serious reading. WSC own account, in 5 Volumes "The Second World War" goes into great detail. The only thing missing is Enigma and the Bletchley code breakers as that secret went on into the 1950s as the Russians were using captured German Enigma machines believing the code to be unbreakable.

 

I have spent 30 years researching the Second World War, I have numerous academic books on the subject.

 

Of course, the Blitz on London, Birmingham  Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield as well as others were designed to bring terror to the population. However "Bomber" also thought he could bring a nation to its knees with mass bombing of civilian populations. He didn't. However what he did do was to keep several divisions of German forces tied up defending the homeland instead of fighting on the eastern front. A fact overlooked by the current fashion of critisising Harris.

 

If you'd like to read up on it, I'll send you a list of books.

[SootySport]

I agree with you Norm,   basically what I said mate, only limited RAF power in the south and the Luftwaffe could not finish the job, big mistake.       Wikipedia in the '30's   

 

I've got a reading list as long as my arm but guess I won't get very far until I retire. 

[pistonbroke]

Mien Kamf is a good read to

[Norman Verona]

I've read that too. Difficult to stay awake.