re: WWII hypothetical: could Britain have defeated Germany by itself after June 1940

Man I just wanna say this is one of the most interesting threads I've ever clicked on here. Props you guys. How y'all know all this shite? Lol

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They took all the P-39's we could ship to them. Sure as hell, no US pilot wanted to go to war in them

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This is because of the different style of air warfare on the eastern front than what was being fought on the western front.

On the a western front you had high altitude fights due to the ongoing bomber offensive being carried out around the clock by British Bomber Command and the American 8th Air Force. These heavy bombers attacked at very high altitude which meant the German fighters operated at high altitude to intercept those bombers. Thus, on the Western Front the Allies needed fighters with excellent high altitude performance to escort the bombers. This was the P39's main weakness, it's high altitude performance was piss poor.

On the Eastern Fromt things were different. There was no strategic bomber offensive on either side. Instead the air battles were on a tactical level where medium bombers and ground attack aircraft operated at at most medium altitude and most often at low altitude. This in turn meant most fighters likewise stayed at lower altitudes. And this is where the P39 shined. While the "Airacobra" had piss poor high altitude performance, it's low altitude performance was excellent. Add in the fact it had devastating firepower and, thanks to center mounted cannon, was easy to hit targets accurately, you see why the Soviets loved it.

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Can we agree their command and control sucked in the Battle of France? As well as their philosophy of armor deployment?

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You hit the nail on the head. These two things you mentioned played huge roles in the French defeat in 1940. Their command failed time and again. First by falling for the German ruse and pushing the bulk of the best French and British formations into Belgium, which only stuck their necks further in the noose. To the absurd " Saar offensive", to allowing so many troops to sit and do nothing in the Maginot line while the German Panzers broke through at Sedan. The French command stumbled from blunder to blunder from start to finish.

And as for the French tanks. Tank for tank they were better than their German counterparts. But this advantage was wasted by having the French tanks spread out to support the infantry. The French belatedly tried to address this issue by forming armored divisions. Of course it was too late by then.

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I know this. The Airacobra didn't exactly shine in the Pacific, either.

Of course, that's because the powers that were opted for the cheaper, single-stage supercharger, which killed performance at altitude

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I don't even know if it would have fit, especially considering the odd engine placement of the P39 behind the pilot. But I wonder how this plane could have shined if they'd have mounted the Merlin in her?

Look what it did for the P51. Before swapping to the Merlin engine, the P51 was not that great of a fighter and like the P39 it had piss poor performance at high altitudes. But once they started mounting the Merlin in the Mustang... Well, the rest is history.

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But the Merlin-powered Mustang was better than anyone thought it could be

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Probably the best piston driven fighter of the war.

I'd remove the 'probably'. While other fighters may have been superior in one area or another, the Mustang scored very high in every area.

I

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I'd remove the 'probably'. While other fighters may have been superior in one area or another, the Mustang scored very high in every area

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True. But you know there's a lot of fans of planes like the Spitfire, Hellcat, and Corsair that would argue the point until their face turned blue.

Somewhere out there is a British dude, old sailor and an old marine all pissed off at you right now.

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The Desert Fox is the greatest German of all time.

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From all accounts he was an honorable officer. Too bad he fought for the wrong side, but that's the breaks.

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By the time it arrived in Europe, the Germans knew their days of seriously contesting control of the skies were over.

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Fat Hermann himself said "When I saw the Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up".