Time to rewrite History

[DBA_bloke]

You're joking aren't you? Dad's army? V2s would have been useless against an invading mobile army. If the Germans had landed they would have won In a few weeks. And don't argue till you have read all available literature on the subject
The thing that stopped them was the Channel. That was a kiilling zone the Navy could have exploited.

No, not joking. Invasion of the UK was, as you will know, cancelled after we made German air supremacy a no-no. So, invasion of the UK was postponed until better times.

The UK is naturally easier to defend than other countries, owing to it being an island, and we had a long time to get our defences in-place. A lot of which still survive to this day. And a lot of the better defences were, not too surprisingly, kept secret! I am not saying we'd have never been invaded; I AM saying that it may never have happened, owing to our excellent defences, the Channel, US help, Germany trying to suppress uprisings in Europe, etc.

V2-type technology: if we'd had it and used it, Germany would have been only too happy to think about being pals, rather than invading. I never said such weapons would be used against troops, etc.: I meant that bombing the crap out of Berlin/wherever would have made them think again. The V2 nearly did for us, remember.

Literature: read it. Museums: visited.

[EternalOptimist]

True. But I think the US would have been declaring war on the Germans and Co. anyway.

You think ????????


Lets try sticking to the facts. You seem to be quite good at this rewriting history malarky yourself

[sasguru]

No, not joking. Invasion of the UK was, as you will know, cancelled after we made German air supremacy a no-no. So, invasion of the UK was postponed until better times.

The UK is naturally easier to defend than other countries, owing to it being an island, and we had a long time to get our defences in-place. A lot of which still survive to this day. And a lot of the better defences were, not too surprisingly, kept secret! I am not saying we'd have never been invaded; I AM saying that it may never have happened, owing to our excellent defences, the Channel, US help, Germany trying to suppress uprisings in Europe, etc.

V2-type technology: if we'd had it and used it, Germany would have been only too happy to think about being pals, rather than invading. I never said such weapons would be used against troops, etc.: I meant that bombing the crap out of Berlin/wherever would have made them think again. The V2 nearly did for us, remember.
Literature: read it. Museums: visited.

Clearly not comprehensively, as not a single military historian would agree with your thesis.
PS The V2 only killed about 2500 people in total - more people were killed on single nights in the Blitz. Hardly "nearly did for us".

[EternalOptimist]

Clearly not comprehensively, as not a single military historian would agree with your thesis.
PS The V2 only killed about 2500 people in total - more people were killed on single nights in the Blitz. Hardly "nearly did for us".

It's probably not PC to talk about 'Kill-Rates' these days but the V weapons killed about one person per rocket. Their main impact was psychological, and they had a large impact on morale.

If you get attacked by bombers you get to shoot some of them down, its not so one-sided, even if the damage is ten times worse. You can show off captured aircrew and wreckage. The V weapon wasn't like that, it made peolple think they were being picked off and there was nothing they could do.

[sasguru]

I suspect we'd be aiming the V2s at their bases over the channel, rather than at their soldiers marching across Kent. Then we had good defences on the coast, didn't we?

Not sure about inland though, but maybe at the time of possible invasion our soldiers were mostly in the country (back from Dunkirk, not yet sent to North Africa), so perhaps we didn't depend on the home guard.

And we had Paddy Payne!

Anyway there's no way the yanks had V2 type technology in 1940. It was considered cutting edge in 1944 and after the war the yanks took over the German scientists who had developed it - Werner von Braun etc. to catch up

[sasguru]

It's probably not PC to talk about 'Kill-Rates' these days but the V weapons killed about one person per rocket. Their main impact was psychological, and they had a large impact on morale.

If you get attacked by bombers you get to shoot some of them down, its not so one-sided, even if the damage is ten times worse. You can show off captured aircrew and wreckage. The V weapon wasn't like that, it made peolple think they were being picked off and there was nothing they could do.

That's true it's impact was more psycholigical than anything.

[Board Game Geek]

OMG, what have I started ?

[DBA_bloke]

That's true it's impact was more psycholigical than anything.

I confess that I don't know for sure how many each V weapon killed. But actual records posted on a wall at the Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms show lots of deaths & casualties per hit. Maybe they kept the real figures to themselves, to prevent panic?

[sasguru]

I confess that I don't know for sure how many each V weapon killed. But actual records posted on a wall at the Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms show lots of deaths & casualties per hit. Maybe they kept the real figures to themselves, to prevent panic?

If they did at the time, the figures would have been released by now under the 30 year rule.
It is about 2500 total. Non nuclear missiles never kill many people - witness the Scud in the 1st Gulf war.

[Muttley08]

If they did at the time, the figures would have been released by now under the 30 year rule.
It is about 2500 total. Non nuclear missiles never kill many people - witness the Scud in the 1st Gulf war.

I think DBA'a got a point...they probably weren't too bothered about statistics in the middle of WW2 (unlike nowadays) - they played most things Germany did down. And when the SCUD's were on target they did a lot of damage in built-up areas....don't know if the V2 was accurate though?