<p>The British, like a lot of armies through time, have had an ignoble moment or two in their history. Our friends the Aussies don’t like to forget some bad decisions made by the British led joint forces battling the Turks at Gallipoli. And the backlash from the ‘Breaker Morant’ case in the Boer War had political repercussions in Australia.</p>
<p>Well, Dionysus, my father, who covered WWII (1939-42) from London for United Press International was very clear that the American decision to enter the war definitely changed its path, and for the better. Yes, the Brits were a determined people, but let’s not forget the enormous resources of the Germans. </p>
<p>An argument could be made that it was not the fighting power of the Americans but the decision by FDR to develop a nuclear bomb, using research first done in Germany.</p>
<p>As Kevin Kline’s character said to the stuffy snooty wife of lawyer John Cleese in ‘A Fish Called Wanda,’…you know where England would be if the USA hadn’t come to save you in dubya dubya 2?..The freaking smallest province in the Soviet freaking Union.’ Hah!!!</p>
<p>I suggest not accepting OP’s version of the British take on the American Revolution. Check out the BBC History take. War debt, Taxes, Parliament, lack of effective representation and not a mention of George.</p>
<p>[BBC</a> - History - British History in depth: Was the American Revolution Inevitable?](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/american_revolution_01.shtml]BBC”>BBC - History - British History in depth: Was the American Revolution Inevitable?)</p>
<p>“Appeasement” when googled alone with BBC gets some very interesting slants on why it was so popular although rooundly criticized by a few including Churchill. I especially thought it was interesting that in the 19302 the British “upper classes” were thought to have made it clear that they would not support the country and crown in another war in Europe.</p>
<p>Dionysus-
"Quote:
I assumed you were British or at least living in GB for two reasons. You list your location as London and you use British spellings, such as “practise” in some of your posts.</p>
<p>A foolish presumption considering a third of London’s population is foreign-born, and British schools (which use British spellings) exist in more than 120 countries. "</p>
<p>Fine, so perhaps you live in London, Ontario. If you want to be cagey, fine. “Ha ha! I caught them all. They thought I meant London, England!” Should we care? Nothing I wrote had anything to do with your country of origin, residence or citizenship.</p>
<p>According to these British links Dunkirk was viewed by the English masses as “good riddance” to other Allies, England did not need them. Note that Churchill stated honestly that there is no victory in an evacuation.</p>
<p>[BBC</a> gets the historical drama of Dunkirk absolutely right - Telegraph](<a href=“BBC gets the historical drama of Dunkirk absolutely right”>BBC gets the historical drama of Dunkirk absolutely right)</p>
<p>[BBC</a> - Archive - WWII: Dunkirk Evacuation - How the ‘little ships’ helped rescue the Allied troops](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/dunkirk/]BBC”>http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/dunkirk/)</p>
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<p>True, but there was no way Germany was going to be able to invade the UK through the RN and RAF. Also, they were outrunning their logistics as they advanced so quickly, so they would not have been ready to invade immediately even if they could clear away the RN and RAF. Germany tried to gain air superiority over the UK, but did not even come close (Battle of Britain). In contrast, the Allies had both air and naval superiority at Normandy, so Germany could only put up resistance as the invaders approached land, rather than sinking the invasion ships out at sea.</p>
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<p>Actually, the Luftwaffe came very close to defeating the RAF by their concentrated attacks on RAF bases/factories during the Battle of Britain. If the Nazi high command hadn’t switched to the bombing of British cities and gotten overconfident about “completely defeating the RAF” instead of maintaining their pressure on RAF bases/factories…there may have been a chance they succeeded. </p>
<p>Thankfully, this didn’t come to pass and the Luftwaffe became shocked and then demoralized when they came to the realization that contrary to their earlier overconfident beliefs…the RAF were not only a continuously serious threat…but actually getting stronger while the Luftwaffe suffered horrendous losses.</p>