By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
bouzane on 30 May 2012
Edit Thread
Rath said:
bouzane said:
Mr Khan said:
Rath said:
That video doesn't show whether he is talking about Iraq or Afghanistan.

On the topic of WWII, don't ignore the British contribution! It was the British who turned one of the fronts against Germany in the Battle of Britain.

Certainly. It is between the loss of the battle of Britain and the later loss of Stalingrad that guaranteed that the Germans would lose eventually, and American involvement merely made it cleaner than it might have been.

It would be foolish to downplay the resistance offered by the British people during World War II but lets not kid ourselves. The Battle of Britain cost the Axis approximately 3,700 KIA/MIA + Captured whereas the war with the Soviet Union cost the Axis 9.9 million KIA/MIA + Captured.


You can't directly compare an air battle and a land battle in terms of casualties.

What the Battle of Britain did is twofold.

1) It kept open another front which prevented the Germans from throwing their full weight against Russia

2) It guaranteed air supremacy for the allies (and especially the RAF) for the rest of the war. Not having air supremacy is an absolutley crippling disadvantage.


1. The forces reserved for Operation Sea Lion (the planned amphibious invasion of Britain) were successfully rerouted and deployed as part of Operation Barbarossa. Hence, the Battle of Britain completely failed to prevent this.

2. This may be true but it doesn't change the fact that the Axis was crushed almost entirely by the Soviets with comparatively little being accomplished by the British.

Fun fact: More Axis aircraft were lost in the highly successful Operation Barbarossa than during the entire Battle of Britain. Once you factor in the Axis aircraft lost during the continued fighting on the Eastern Front and it's really quite one-sided. This doesn't even take into account the nearly 10 million Axis casualties inflicted by the Soviets. Over 90% of all Axis losses can be attributed to the Soviet Union. The USSR technically dealt approximately ten times as much damage to the Axis as all other Allied nations combined.