I SAW a discussion concerning whether the RAF or the Royal Navy was the greatest deterrent to Hitler's invasion of Great Britain.
As a former member of the Royal Navy, I believe we would have been bombed into submission.
I served aboard destroyers during this period and our losses due to air attacks were considerable.
At the end of 1941, we tied up astern of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in Cape Town harbour.
They sailed to the Far East and were later sunk by Japanese air attacks, as they had no air cover.
We escorted a convoy to Malta and were subjected to air attacks, again with insufficient air cover, and lost about 70 per cent of the merchant ships, cruisers, destroyers and an aircraft carrier, HMS Eagle.
After we invaded North Africa we escorted ships further east, and until we could get Spitfires in the air to shoot down Stuka dive bombers, JU88s and torpedo bombers, we lost a lot of ships.
In my opinion, without air cover the Royal Navy would have been bombed and sunk, so do not underestimate the huge contribution the RAF played to prevent an invasion by the Germans during 1940.
R Broadfield
Address supplied
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