The Royal Navy and the Battle of Britain Review

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(More customer reviews)I was very much looking forward to this book, expecting to find some detailed analysis of the Navy's plans for countering an invasion, some calculations on the number of ferries and lighters the Germans could assemble and the load carrying capacity that would give them, and some evaluation of the effectiveness of small and large warships in blocking or disrupting the invasion force. There is a very small amount of the latter in this book, and nothing on the first two topics.
The author has instead focussed on denigrating the image of an RAF victory in the Battle of Britain, expecting that, by default, that will leave the Royal Navy the principal remaining reason for Germany not invading. Sorry, you don't build the Royal Navy up by tearing the RAF down.
It is almost axiomatic that the Royal Navy was the elephant in the room the Germans could not dismiss, and which was almost certainly the obstacle to invasion that no amount of air superiority would overcome. As the designer's notes for the old SPI game Seelowe said, we've left the Royal Navy out because otherwise there isn't much of a game or an invasion. We get that point: to be of value, this book would have to have had a technical dimension, or much more analysis of RN and Kriegsmarine planning to show the detailed effect the Royal Navy would have. A comparison of the German 1940 capabilities to what was required for D-Day would not have been amiss, either.
The impression this book gives is that the Navy didn't really do much planning for countering an invasion - a somewhat dangerous situation. Even though Dunkirk was pulled off with minimal advance planning, disrupting an invasion would take much more coordination.

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This persuasive study attacks the key myths surrounding the Battle of Britain to revise the relative status of maritime and aviation factors in the defense of Britain. Without denigrating the heroism of the fighter pilots, Anthony Cumming challenges the effectiveness of the Royal Air Force in 1940 and gives the Royal Navy much greater prominence than others have. He vigorously asserts the ability of British warships to frustrate German plans for Operation Sea Lion and to repel Luftwaffe attacks. The author argues that the RAF took the lion s share of the glory only because its colorful image could easily be used to manipulate American opinion. Cumming contends that the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain should celebrate the contributions of the many rather than focusing on the pilot elite, an assertion certain to provoke discussion.

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