Bret Devereaux

In 1941, during WWII the British army was forced to evacuate the island of Crete which was being overrun by the Nazis. The Luftwaffe, of course, attacked the Royal Navy warships performing the evacuation. The British ships suffered severe losses. 1/3

But when people tried to get Adm. Cunningham to call off the evacuation he declared, convinced 'the navy must not let the army down': "It takes the navy three years to build a ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition. The evacuation will continue." 2/3

Side note: This is the single best argument I've ever seen for why Sea Lion would have failed. If the RN went that all-out for an evacuation of tiny, faraway Crete, imagine what they'd have done during an invasion of their own island.

Sea Lion's failure was in a way over-determined. The Luftwaffe couldn't get air superiority. Even if they could, it isn't clear they could prohibit the RN from engaging the landings. Even if they could, it isn't clear that the Wehrmacht could gain footholds...