Nick Griffin on Question Time Page 33

Quote: sootyj @ October 24 2009, 11:42 PM BST

Well the Luftwaffe was doing surprisingly well at knocking out RAF radars and airfields. If ADHD Adolf had stuck to that and not bombing cities pointlessly it might have all ended in tears. Also he had a bizarre ruling that all German bombers had to be able to dive bomb, hence most of their bombers were rather anemic and small.

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A lot of truth in that, but at the same time the Luftwaffe were ridiculously over-confident prior to the Battle, and massively over-estimated the damage that they were causing during it.

Quote: DaButt @ October 24 2009, 11:30 PM BST

Patrol that narrow sea lane with warships, submarines and attack aircraft and it wouldn't be too difficult to choke Britain into submission.

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Erm, but they couldn't do that, even when occupying France. The Brits were constantly attcking French and Belgian ports and disabling both them and German craft there. And we'd already sunk the French Navy, lest they should be commandered by the Nazies. The Royal Navy had superiority in the Channel, it was in the Atlantic where she suffered.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ October 25 2009, 12:10 AM BST

The Royal Navy had superiority in the Channel

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They missed the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau tho' !

(or the Schoolmaster and Eisenhower as my spellchecker helpfully suggests ! )

Sorry, meant Scharnhorst, Gneisnenau and Prinz Eugen but the spellchecker isn't so much fun !

Yes nobbling Eisenhower wouldn't have been a bad idea, IMO, who did he think he was, telling Monty what to do?

Quote: Timbo @ October 24 2009, 11:40 PM BST

about as realistic as the USAF's claims in more recent conflicts.

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I wouldn't bet my life on what you say being true. GPS-guided bombs almost never miss.

Quote: DaButt @ October 25 2009, 12:26 AM BST

GPS-guided bombs almost never miss.

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Yes, but that still depends on the Yank programming them being numerate enough to punch in the right coordinates.

(Apologies. Joke. )

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ October 25 2009, 12:10 AM BST

Erm, but they couldn't do that, even when occupying France.

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I made my point in reference to earlier "what-if" discussions about Germany leaving Britain alone. If Hitler had managed to take western Europe without having to fight the UK or the U.S. they would have been able to concentrate an awful lot of strength against the UK and use it to twist Britain's arm until they fell into line.

Quote: Tim Walker @ October 25 2009, 12:30 AM BST

Yes, but that still depends on the Yank programming them being numerate enough to put in the right coordinates.

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I think you'll find that the bombs are programmed correctly and it's the men on the ground who called in the wrong coordinates. It's probably an easy thing to do when people are shooting at you.

Quote: DaButt @ October 25 2009, 12:32 AM BST

I think you'll find that the bombs are programmed correctly and it's the men on the ground who called in the wrong coordinates. It's probably an easy thing to do when people are shooting at you.

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Fair point.

I'm reminded of a notorious Richard Burton quote in the 60s about Churchill, whom he detested - something about being 'a cold blooded murderer who loved a good war better than a good woman' or something vaguely similar. Had a great turn of phrase did Burton so it was probably better than that.

Burton wasn't exactly the nicest of chaps. And all he did for Britain was get massively drunk, do a lot of shouty acting and piss of to America for tax reasons.

(He was good in the film of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, I'll give him that much.)

And it was Churchill who said that "Jaw-jaw is always better than war-war".

That's not fair, he pissed off to Switzerland for tax reasons too.

And it was Churchill who said that "Jaw-jaw is always better than war-war".[/quote]
Yes but he didn't really mean it.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ October 25 2009, 12:46 AM BST

Yes but he didn't really mean it.

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Perhaps. But I think it was better to have someone at the helm who actually enjoyed a good war, rather than someone who was inclined to be a peacemaker. When you're up against the Third Reich the gloves are off and it's no time for gentlemen.

Powell and Pressburger's film The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp really made the point about the difference between "gentlemen's wars" and fighting the Nazis very well. (Ironic that Churchill nearly tried to ban it, since it actually put his case for the 'win at any cost' strategy against Hitler rather well.)

Quote: DaButt @ October 25 2009, 12:32 AM BST

I think you'll find that the bombs are programmed correctly and it's the men on the ground who called in the wrong coordinates. It's probably an easy thing to do when people are shooting at you.

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Targetting errors were also one of the Luftwaffe's biggest problems. A lot of munitions were wasted as a result of bad intelligence.

Quote: Timbo @ October 25 2009, 12:56 AM BST

Targetting errors were also one of the Luftwaffe's biggest problems. A lot of munitions were wasted as a result of bad intelligence.

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Bombing technology wasn't very advanced in WWII. In those days they'd send a hundred bombers with the hope that one would manage to strike the target. Now you can load a bomber with a multitude of GPS-guided bombs and each one will strike its target.

Quote: Tim Walker @ October 25 2009, 12:52 AM BST

Perhaps. But I think it was better to have someone at the helm who actually enjoyed a good war, rather than someone who was inclined to be a peacemaker. When you're up against the Third Reich the gloves are off and it's no time for gentlemen.

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Yes I fully agree with you, reluctantly. I'm very pleased we had Churchill too, I'm just vainly trying to put the point across that he was fairly ruthless in his methods and extremely clever at dodging culpability or criticism of his most costly policies - evry time there was a cry of anguish or protest in the commons he'd come up with a riposte, usually an angry one of he didn't listen to advice from traitors or similar things. He was a true character.

Edited by zooo. Can you be a bit more careful with the quote tags please?