What was British plan in 1941?

[strateguy632]

In 1941, nazi invaded soviet, after france surrendered so only fight one side, but that was the best time to liberated france! With Germans far east, should recapture the french ports used for submarines, and also to force Germany to fight on 2 directions.

Did they want russia to lose? Still either way if brits expected nazi fail, brits should weaken by attacking Germany west! Forcing a surrender or... expected russia to lose, then germany has even MORE resources to turn against brits, so what was plan other than "lose ships in ocean"?

[DJB72]

You're ignoring North Africa against Rommel's force and the Italians led by Montgomery - a campaign my grandfather was part of.

The "Western" front British forces led against was one regular army - the British Empire, which included Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Indian and basically every English speaking country on earth with one notable exception. Guess who? The Free French, Free Spanish, Yugoslav, Greek, and anyone else not currently fighting Japan formed the Allies.

Axis forces, led by Germany and Japan were backed by captured European forces, Italy, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (grandfather organisation of Hamas, Isis, Hezbollah, etc) and anyone else interested in exterminating the Jewish people.

The "Plan" was to defeat Germany at any cost. That included allowing Coventry to be obliterated by the Germans so they didn't know British Intelligence had cracked Enigma.

It would have taken longer, but if America had only fought in the far East - also alongside British forces who'd been there two years before the Yanks got involved - the Allies would still have beaten Germany. The USSR would have been bigger, but the Germans were fighting on two fronts with a fifth column in the Resistance working from inside.

[strateguy632]

I am not ignoring nkrth africa... you don't know about the SUBMARINE THREAT to britain? That was not a priority? French ports?

[DJB72]

The submarine threat was minimised by the capture of the refuelling tanker by British and Swedish commandos and the Channel was mainly kept clear by the Royal Navy. Hitler's massive battleship, Bismark, was located, tracked and sunk by the RAF.

British and free European forces had been doing it all for two years before any US forces got involved. Just like in WW1 when America didn't get involved for the first two years.

Having studied both wars I'd say the British was more indebted in 1916 than 1941 to the USA finally getting involved. And that's only because the Russians called a ceasefire in 1916.

My uncle was a submarine hunter in the RAF 220 Squadron after he helped track Bismarck until the Swordfish torpedo planes could sink it. I'm very aware of that part of the war.

[BCA6010]

The Commonwealth actually did attempt to re-establish a beachhead on mainland Europe prior to Operation Overlord, and it was an unmitigated disaster. The UK fought a very conservative war compared to WW1 and made a ton of mistakes that kept them further turtled up at home, and highly mobile abroad. One crucial failure was that the Royal Navy grossly underestimated the U-boat threat and thought ASDIC made submarines obsolete. Not only did this leave them vulnerable for the first couple years, but the RN's own submarine force was atrociously weak despite the royal navy being one of the most powerful forces in the world at the time.

[Lynx122]

They didn't have the capabilities to attack the germans at the start of the war. The Germans had better equipped troops in every way. There were British troops supporting France when the war started but they stood no chance just like the french stood no chance. They were just as unprepared but they had the luck of being an Island. Over time the edge technological edge slowly shifted to the allies but 1941 was still early. They were dealing with the German air attacks and the submarines taking out their supply ships and everything. It was only in 1943 when the tides started turning. In 1941 the Germans still had the advantage.

[strateguy632]

You did not know, brits had ten huge battleships armor and guns , a huge army, a huge air force that defeated nazi air force in 1940 and the "Germans had better equipped troops" were BUSY IN RUSSIA. as i wrote in question.