[pugsville]

The Blackburn Skua?!!? had a terrible record virtually withdrawn from service from the moment it saw action.

The Northern Bases enabled the British to control the extent of their commitment and retain a reserve and some sort of control over the battle so in the case of an emergancy like an Invasion they would have fresh resevres to commit to the battle. The RAF won the battle of Britain the luftwaffe were totally unable to exert any sort of air domiance over england. In order to mount a serious invasion they would have to maintain some sort domiance for a lengthgly period. It's not just getting the troops ashore it's providing the continous supply. The GEramsn really were not geared up to mount a serious invasion, they lack any sort of specializsed vessals. It would have been pretty ad hoc and the vessals they would be forced to use are would be sitting ducks. Any sort of even brief laspe of air cover could lead to catasphoric losses in very short order. Then there's the Royal Navy, not so much the big ships but just the destroyers of which the RN had plenty and the germans had very few and were pretty shot up by the norway effort. The Royal Navy had a strong tradition of not counting the odds and attacking no matter what (espcially in destroyers)

[soron]

It would have been interesting to see what the RN would have done in such a case. Would they have thrown everything against the invasion force, risking catastrophic losses ? Or would they have copied the RAF strategy of not committing everything they had and be able to fight another day, and the day after.
Both options have pros and cons. If the RN would have carried out an all out attack, they could probably have stopped an invasion. But since the German invasion would probably have chosen the narrow point of the channel it stands to reason that - goven the shortage of transportation - not all of the invasion troops would have been caught. Some of them would still have been on shore. That means that 'stopping the invasion' would not equal 'stopping any efforts at invading once and for all'.
To accomplish that, the RN would have to move into range of the Luftwaffe which - if there was no fighting to support on British soil - could turn their entire attention to the British ships. Parts of those ships might even have come into range of land artillery.
It might well have been a Pyrric victory, stalling the invasion but loosing so many ships in the process that stopping another invasion was very hard to achieve under the best of circumstances.
But then, since Hitler was never really pushing hard for invading Great Britain, being rather anglophile, it might still have been enough to accomplish a ceasefire or peace. In theory, that is. Winston Churchill had already turned down such an offer.

On the other hand, if the RN did not fully committ their forces, the German invasion force would probably be able to push trough. But they would then be faced with the question how long they could stay on the offensive with logistics being under constant threat by a still powerful Royal Navy which would bind a lot of resources to keep in check.

The success of the RAF's tactics of being able to fight another day would make that option look attractive, but in the scenario, with the Luftwaffe winning the Battle of Britain, it would look ineffective. Lots of variables.

[Thunderhawk]

To accomplish that, the RN would have to move into range of the Luftwaffe which - if there was no fighting to support on British soil - could turn their entire attention to the British ships. Parts of those ships might even have come into range of land artillery.
It might well have been a Pyrric victory, stalling the invasion but loosing so many ships in the process that stopping another invasion was very hard to achieve under the best of circumstances.

Depends on the German approach. If they sent their navy and air assets forward to establish control and then send in the transports, that gives the RN and RAF time to harass and attack the edges of the corridor. If the transports were sent in aswell as part of a large force, then the RN commiting some force to sinking the invasion may well be worth it if it meant the destruction of much of the German landing craft (which they never much of) and thus postponing/ending future threats. That tens/hundred thousand german veteran soldiers would die in the channel would be a bonus.