BoB won only with US fuel?

Discussion in 'World War 2' started by Kyt, May 13, 2009.

  1. Kyt

    Kyt Άρης

    RAF fighter planes 'used super-fast fuel from the U.S. to win the Battle of Britain' | Mail Online

     
  2. Kyt

    Kyt Άρης

    Well the references to the practical use 100-octane fuel date back 1935 in Flight magazine, so whatever occurred in 1938, it was not the invention of the stuff. It may have been an easier production process but that is not the same as the wider claim being made that the RAF wouldn't have had the stuff if Houdry hadn't developed a process
     
  3. urqh

    urqh New Member

    Well its an advance on last years model. whereby the Royal Navy actually won it.
     
  4. urqh

    urqh New Member

    I hear say they even won the Falklands. Well their fuel supply at Ascenskon. God bless em, is there any conflict where we dont owe a debt of gratitude and humble bending of knee to our erstwhile ally?
     
  5. Kyt

    Kyt Άρης

    Hurricane Mk I Combat Report
    (see link for a scan of the report about the combat on the 18th May 1940)

    and a number of combat reports mentioning the use of the boost - some dependent upon 100 octane fuel

    Hurricane Mk I Performance

    And the above site has various memos about permitting the distribution and use of the fuel dated December 1939.

    What the Germans found in the BoB, in comparison to the BoF, was a change in tactics, radar interception, and a vast increased number of Spitfires (which only made an appearance at Dunkirk as there were no Spitfire squadrons in France)
     
  6. spidge

    spidge Active Member

    Well Errol Flynn won Burma!

    What most Americans did not know that he was actually an Australian.
     
  7. Antipodean Andy

    Antipodean Andy New Member

    Yes, I enjoyed the line about the Luftwaffe pilots not believing they were facing the same aircraft as they had encountered over France months earlier. True, as they wouldn't have met Spitfires at that time.

    Was all refined fuel acquired from the US at the time?

    Next they'll be claiming Britain was responsible for Pearl Harbor...hee hee.
     
  8. Adrian Roberts

    Adrian Roberts Active Member

    Well, the Japanese couldn't have managed it without Britain!

    Their aircraft carriers and Naval Air Force were largely developed with British help, though they outstripped us pretty fast (the Army Air Force mainly used French expertise). The IJN still had some older battleships and battlecruisers in WW2 that had been built in Britain before WW1 (IJNS Kongo was built by Vickers in 1912).

    So, just who did we think the Japanese were going to be fighting when we gave them this help? There was only one other modern Navy in the Pacific! The "special relationship" between the UK and the USA does not go back all that far: American Naval policy for the Atlantic assumed that in a war, Britain would be the enemy, until well into the 1930s.
     
  9. urqh

    urqh New Member

    Well, why spoil the habits of a lifetime...I remember well having tea break in education hanger in RAF Cosford in 1980, and looking at all the strange uniforms at the vending machines taking a break too...Including the Argentine Airforce bods....Its just something we do...apparanlty.
     
  10. Antipodean Andy

    Antipodean Andy New Member

    And they paid particular attention to Taranto. Damn those RN types!
     

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