In message . net,
Steven P. McNicoll writes
"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message
To have any chance of surviving at all. Night offers at least some
concealment.

The Germans needed the concealment of night to have a chance of survival
against what? The Royal Navy? Surface vessels could not survive against
determined airpower without air support of their own.

Surface vessels could generally endure 1940-41 airpower until their AA
ammunition ran out: that was the point where losses rose rapidly. (See
operations off Norway, Dunkirk, and later Crete for examples).

The trouble is that the RN can sink flat-bottomed river barges a lot
faster than the Luftwaffe can sink cruisers, destroyers, sloops, armed
trawlers, MTBs, MGBs... (particularly once it's a melee situation, and
because instead of embarking troops the warships are in fangs-out combat
mode)


--
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
W S Churchill

Paul J. Adam MainBoxatjrwlynch[dot]demon{dot}co(.)uk