"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

Nope. At best the Luftwaffe could intervene in daylight if
they managed to win and maintain air superiority


Aren't we now working under the premise that the Luftwaffe won the BoB and
has air superiority over the channel and southern England?


Sure but they had no airborne radar, like the rest of the
airforces at that time they could only fly such attacks
in daylight.



BUT the
invasion force was going to take more than 24 hours to
reach the invasion beaches and the cruisers and destroyers
sortieing from Harwich cwould be in amongst them at
night in the same way the Japanese steamed down the
slot at Guadalcanal. The Germans had no equivalent naval force
to counter those raids.


Why must the German invasion force operate at night?


Because they have around 30 nautical miles to cover in
barges good for 4 knots , even if we ignore the effects
of the Channel rip currents they would need more than 24 hours
to get the first wave across and then they need to ferry
more troops and supplies using converted river barges
towed by tugboats.

I wouldnt have wanted to be in one of those deathtraps
even if nobody was shooting at me but let loose
30 destroyers and 10 cruisers from harwich and the
result wont be pretty.

Keith