Quote Originally Posted by matteus the inbred
woo, hello Mr Controversy! Actually, you make many very good points, most of them sustainable in my view. I suppose the Luftwaffe had to be doing something, and the RAF weren't going to sit tight in Yorkshire and drink tea while they did it.
One could argue that if the Luftwaffe established complete bombing superiority over southern and mid-England the morale and industrial effect would have been catastrophic after a year of unopposed bombing. And it might render any Fleet operations impossible south of Tyneside, including anti U-Boat and commerce raider operations...after all, the Royal Navy (as the Prince of Wales/Repulse incident shows) needed some air cover to do their job. They couldn't have opposed a landing whilst being bombed to bits.
But all this supposes no RAF activity at all, rather than no RAF activity against German bombing of land targets and needlessly exposed foward airbases.
I agree with your first point whole-heartedly. It would have been a touch difficult (a little quasi-English understatement here) to keep the fighter-boys stood down whilst Canterbury was flattened.

On the other hand, the threat to mid-England would have been countered. No problems facing Bf-110's and the bombers, with the 109's having 5 min or less of fight time North of the Thames. This means that an air umbrella for the fleet would go as far south as the Thames Estuary and as far South as Bristol on the West (and Devon/Cornwall is at the extreme range of the 109 and there's no way the krauts could've established air superiority at that range). Even if the SE was conceded, only a very few industrial sites would have truly been at risk.

POW/Repulse incident not a good analogy. Zero aircover (couldn't resist ) is a far cry different from some fighter cover. The Japanese took numerous hits to sink both ships, even though they faced limited AAA (by Pacific theater standards at least) and a significant number of the Japanese air groups involved were specifically trained as ship hunters. The Germans had neither the doctrine nor the tools to hammer ships as well as the Japanese -- look at their generally sub-par record during the convoy attack phase of the Battle of Britain.

And yes, I do adore such debates.

Kraxis -- NICE nominee. Nelson's proof to history that a man who refuses to be beaten (even when he plainly was) won't be beaten. I've gamed that one using AH's old WS&IM game. Any realistic version of likely events is a bloodbath for both sides. A good pointless waste example.