Britain's situation was likened to the historical situation of the Austrian Empire after its defeat by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866, after which Austria was formally excluded from German affairs but would prove to become a loyal ally of the German Empire in the pre-World War I power alignments in Europe.
Collier, Basil (1962) The Defence of the United Kingdom (official history) Corum, James (1997) The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918–1940.
Isolated and facing fresh regular troops with armour and artillery, the invasion force was forced to surrender after six days. == Planned occupation of Britain == === Future role of Britain === One of the primary German foreign policy aims throughout the 1930s had been to establish a military alliance with the United Kingdom, and despite anti-British policies having been adopted as this proved impossible, hope remained that the UK would in time yet become a reliable German ally.
The Renault UE Chenillette (German name: Infanterie Schlepper UE 630 (f)) was a light tracked armoured carrier and prime mover produced by France between 1932 and 1940.
(2010) The Luftwaffe: A Study in Air Power, 1933–1945.
It was easily transportable by rail. A specialised vehicle intended for Sea Lion was the Landwasserschlepper (LWS), an amphibious tractor under development since 1935.
The Historian 54:2 (1992: Winter), pp. 243–254 Raeder, Erich (2001) Erich Rader, Grand Admiral: The Personal Memoir of the Commander in Chief of the German Navy From 1935 Until His Final Break With Hitler in 1943.
At the time, the only forces with experience and modern equipment for such landings were the Japanese, at the Battle of Wuhan in 1938. === Outbreak of war and fall of Poland === In September 1939, the successful German invasion of Poland infringed on both a French and a British alliance with Poland and both countries declared war on Germany.
At the time, the only forces with experience and modern equipment for such landings were the Japanese, at the Battle of Wuhan in 1938. === Outbreak of war and fall of Poland === In September 1939, the successful German invasion of Poland infringed on both a French and a British alliance with Poland and both countries declared war on Germany.
This directive remained in force in the first phase of the Battle of Britain. In December 1939, the German Army issued its own study paper (designated Nordwest) and solicited opinions and input from both Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe.
It could only be the final act of an already victorious war against Britain as otherwise the preconditions for success of a combined operation would not be met". === The fall of France === Germany's swift and successful occupation of France and the Low Countries gained control of the Channel coast, facing what Schmid's 1939 report called their "most dangerous enemy".
In fact, in November 1939, the German naval staff produced a study on the possibility of an invasion of Britain and concluded that it required two preconditions, air and naval superiority, neither of which Germany ever had.
The Halder War Diary 1939–1942.
A large number of river barges and transport ships were gathered together on the Channel coast, but with Luftwaffe aircraft losses increasing in the Battle of Britain and no sign that the Royal Air Force had been defeated, Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely on 17 September 1940 and it was never put into action. == Background == Adolf Hitler hoped for a negotiated peace with the UK and made no preparations for amphibious assault on Britain until the Fall of France.
Raeder met Hitler on 21 May 1940 and raised the topic of invasion, but warned of the risks and expressed a preference for blockade by air, submarines and raiders. By the end of May, the Kriegsmarine had become even more opposed to invading Britain following its costly victory in Norway; after Operation Weserübung, the Kriegsmarine had only one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, and four destroyers available for operations.
British parliamentarians still arguing for peace negotiations were defeated in the May 1940 War Cabinet Crisis, but throughout July the Germans continued with attempts to find a diplomatic solution. === Invasion planning === In a report presented on 30 June, OKW Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl reviewed options to increase pressure on Britain to agree to a negotiated peace.
16: Operation Sea Lion ==== On 16 July 1940 Hitler issued Führer Directive No.
Raeder said barge conversions would take until 15 September, leaving the only possible 1940 invasion dates as 22–26 September, when weather was likely to be unsuitable.
17: air and sea warfare against England ==== On 1 August 1940, Hitler instructed intensified air and sea warfare to "establish the necessary conditions for the final conquest of England".
The Germans hoped the air action would force the British to negotiate, and make invasion unnecessary. == Land forces == In the Army plan of 25 July 1940, the invasion force was to be organised into two army groups drawn from the 6th Army, the 9th Army and the 16th Army.
But then the accumulation of invasion barges in French ports from late August 1940 rather indicated a landing on the South coast.
The same airborne tactics had also been used in support of the invasions of Belgium and the Netherlands on 10 May 1940.
Consequently, even in September 1940 the Luftwaffe had the capacity to provide only around 3,000 airborne troops to participate in the first wave of Operation Sea Lion. === Battle of Britain === The Battle of Britain began in early July 1940, with attacks on shipping and ports in the Kanalkampf which forced RAF Fighter Command into defensive action.
Only nine destroyers were sunk by air attack in 1940, out of a force of over 100 operating in British waters at the time.
The Luftwaffes record against merchant shipping was also unimpressive: it sank only one in every 100 British vessels passing through British waters in 1940, and most of this total was achieved using mines. ==== Luftwaffe special equipment ==== Had an invasion taken place, the Bf 110 equipped Erprobungsgruppe 210 would have dropped Seilbomben just prior to the landings.
Hitler initially declined any such aid but eventually allowed a small contingent of Italian fighters and bombers, the Italian Air Corps (Corpo Aereo Italiano or CAI), to assist in the Luftwaffe's aerial campaign over Britain in October and November 1940. == Navy == The most daunting problem for Germany in protecting an invasion fleet was the small size of its navy.
The Kriegsmarine, already numerically far inferior to Britain's Royal Navy, had lost a sizeable portion of its large modern surface units in April 1940 during the Norwegian campaign, either as complete losses or due to battle damage.
In his memoirs, Erich Raeder, commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine in 1940, argued: On 13 August 1940, Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations in the OKW (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) wrote his "Assessment of the situation arising from the views of the Army and Navy on a landing in England." His first point was that "The landing operation must under no circumstances fail.
By the autumn of 1940, the Kriegsmarine had achieved considerable success in laying minefields in support of active operations, notably in the night of 31 August 1940 when the 20th Destroyer flotilla suffered heavy losses when running into a newly laid German minefield near the Dutch coast off Texel; however no plans were made to prevent the mines being cleared by the large force of British minesweepers which were based in the area.
Vizeadmiral Friedrich Ruge, who was in charge of the mining operation, wrote after the war that if the minefields had been relatively complete, they would have been a "strong obstacle" but that "even a strong obstacle is not an absolute barrier." === Landing craft === In 1940 the German Navy was ill-prepared for mounting an amphibious assault the size of Operation Sea Lion.
The plan revised on 14 September 1940 by Admiral Günther Lütjens called for three groups of five U-boats, all seven destroyers, and seventeen torpedo boats to operate to the west of the mine barrier in the Channel, while two groups of three U-boats and all the available E-boats to operate north of it.
The LWS was demonstrated to General Halder on 2 August 1940 by the Reinhardt Trials Staff on the island of Sylt and, though he was critical of its high silhouette on land, he recognised the overall usefulness of the design.
The standard German antitank gun, the 37 mm Pak 36, was capable of penetrating the armour of all 1940 British tanks except the Matilda and Valentine.
The Renault UE Chenillette (German name: Infanterie Schlepper UE 630 (f)) was a light tracked armoured carrier and prime mover produced by France between 1932 and 1940.
This work was assigned to the Organisation Todt and commenced on 22 July 1940. By early August, four traversing turrets were fully operational as were all of the Army's railway guns.
The very next day the Chiefs of Staff, after discussing the importance of the defile, decided to reinforce the Dover coast with more ground troops. The guns started to fire in the second week of August 1940 and were not silenced until 1944, when the batteries were overrun by Allied ground forces.
Whatever the perceived risk, this lack of ability to hit any moving ship does not support the contention that the German coastal batteries would have been a serious threat to fast destroyers or smaller warships. == Indefinite postponement == During the summer of 1940, both the British public and the Americans believed that a German invasion was imminent, and they studied the forthcoming [tide]s of 5–9 August, 2–7 September, 1–6 October, and 30 October – 4 November as likely dates.
A crew turned up at the Belgian port of Antwerp in early September 1940 and, for two days, they filmed tanks and troops landing from barges on a nearby beach under simulated fire.
On 17 September 1940, Hitler held a meeting with Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt during which he became convinced the operation was not viable.
Author James Hayward has suggested that the whispering campaign around the "failed invasion" was a successful example of British black propaganda to bolster morale at home and in occupied Europe, and convince America that Britain was not a lost cause. On 12 October 1940, Hitler issued a directive releasing forces for other fronts.
On 12 November 1940, Hitler issued Directive No.
21 on 18 December 1940 instructing the Wehrmacht to be ready for a quick attack to commence his long planned invasion of the Soviet Union.
In his fictional alternate history Invasion: the German invasion of England, July 1940, Kenneth Macksey proposes that the Germans might have succeeded if they had swiftly and decisively begun preparations even before the Dunkirk evacuations, and the Royal Navy for some reason had held back from large-scale intervention, though in practice the Germans were unprepared for such a speedy commencement of their assault.
towed) inland waterways vessels as they shuttled slowly between the Continent to the invasion beaches and any captured harbours. === Weather === From 19 to 26 September 1940, sea and wind conditions on and over the Channel where the invasion was to take place were good overall, and a crossing, even using converted river barges, was feasible provided the sea state remained at less than 4, which for the most part it did.
The controllers of the game assumed that the Luftwaffe had not diverted its daytime operations into bombing London on 7 September 1940, but had continued its assault against RAF airbases in the South East.
In the Game, the Germans were able to land almost all their first echelon forces on 22 September 1940, and established a beachhead in south-east England, capturing Folkestone, and Newhaven, albeit that the British had demolished the facilities of both ports.
It was hoped that a defeated Britain would fulfill a similar role, being excluded from continental affairs, but maintaining its Empire and becoming an allied seafaring partner of the Germans. The continued military actions against the UK after the fall of France had the strategic goal of making Britain 'see the light' and conduct an armistice with the Axis powers, with 1 July 1940 being named the "probable date" for the cessation of hostilities.
On 21 May 1940, Chief of Army Staff Franz Halder, after a consultation with Hitler on the war aims regarding Britain, wrote in his diary: "We are seeking contact with Britain on the basis of partitioning the world".
This 'Operation Sea Lion Edition' was finalised and printed in the summer of 1940.
(1979) 'Operation Seelowe and Intensified Air Warfare Against England up to 30 October 1940', in Detweiler, D.
At a meeting with the army, the navy proposed delay until May 1941, when the new battleships and would be ready.
Landings would have to be on a narrow front, and would be better in spring 1941.
London was showing new-found optimism, and he attributed this to their hopes of intervention by Russia, which Germany was to attack in the spring of 1941. ==== Directive No.
They were to carry sufficient fuel and ammunition for a combat radius of 200 km. === Specialised landing equipment === As part of a Kriegsmarine competition, prototypes for a prefabricated "heavy landing bridge" or jetty (similar in function to later Allied Mulberry Harbours) were designed and built by Krupp Stahlbau and Dortmunder Union and successfully overwintered in the North Sea in 1941–42.
This was reduced to six units by the autumn of 1941, and eventually cancelled altogether when it became apparent that Sea Lion would never take place. In mid-1942, both the Krupp and Dortmunder prototypes were shipped to the Channel Islands and installed together off Alderney, where they were used for unloading materials needed to fortify the island.
The Seeschlange was successfully tested by the Army Training Unit at Le Havre in France in the autumn of 1941 and later chosen for use in Operation Herkules, the proposed Italo-German invasion of Malta.
The appearance of preparations for Sea Lion was to be continued to keep political pressure on Britain, and a fresh directive would be issued if it was decided that invasion was to be reconsidered in the spring of 1941.
On 1 May 1941, fresh invasion orders were issued under the codename Haifische (shark), accompanied by additional landings on the southwest and northeast coasts of England codenamed Harpune Nord and Harpune Süd (harpoon north and south), although commanders of naval stations were informed that these were deception plans.
On 23 September 1941, Hitler ordered all Sea Lion preparations to cease, but it was 1942 before the last of the barges at Antwerp were returned to trade.
He suggests they could possibly have held on into 1941, sustained by a small-ship fast night-time resupply operation into Folkestone (and maybe Dover), holding the possibility of negotiating their withdrawal in Spring 1941 under a truce agreed with the British government. === Logistics === Four years later, the Allied D-Day landings showed just how much materiel had to be landed continuously to maintain an amphibious invasion.
In fact, in Russia in 1941, when engaged in heavy fighting (at the end of a very long supply line), a single German infantry division required up to 1,100 tons of supplies a day, though a more usual figure would be 212-425 tons per day.
Even as the war went on Hitler hoped in August 1941 for the eventual day when "England and Germany [march] together against America", and in January 1942 he still daydreamed that it was "not impossible" for Britain to quit the war and join the Axis side.
On 23 September 1941, Hitler ordered all Sea Lion preparations to cease, but it was 1942 before the last of the barges at Antwerp were returned to trade.
Even as the war went on Hitler hoped in August 1941 for the eventual day when "England and Germany [march] together against America", and in January 1942 he still daydreamed that it was "not impossible" for Britain to quit the war and join the Axis side.
However, despite firing on frequent slow moving coastal convoys, often in broad daylight, for almost the whole of that period (there was an interlude in 1943), there is no record of any vessel being hit by them, although one seaman was killed and others were injured by shell splinters from near misses.
The Historian 54:2 (1992: Winter), pp. 243–254 Raeder, Erich (2001) Erich Rader, Grand Admiral: The Personal Memoir of the Commander in Chief of the German Navy From 1935 Until His Final Break With Hitler in 1943.
By contrast, the Allied D day landings in 1944 were timed to happen at low tide; with all troops and equipment transhipped from their transport vessels to landing craft off-shore overnight. All the troops intended to land at beach 'E', the westernmost of the four beaches, would cross the channel in larger transport vessels - the barges being towed loaded with equipment but empty of troops - and would then be transferred onto their barges a short distance from the beach.
The very next day the Chiefs of Staff, after discussing the importance of the defile, decided to reinforce the Dover coast with more ground troops. The guns started to fire in the second week of August 1940 and were not silenced until 1944, when the batteries were overrun by Allied ground forces.
The German official naval war historian, Vice Admiral Kurt Assmann, wrote in 1958: "Had the German Air Force defeated the Royal Air Force as decisively as it had defeated the French Air Force a few months earlier, I am sure Hitler would have given the order for the invasion to be launched - and the invasion would in all probability been smashed". An alternative, and very much a minority, perspective was advanced in 2016 by Robert Forczyk in We march against England.
His assessment concurs with that emerging from the 1974 Sandhurst Sea Lion wargame (see below) that the first wave would likely have crossed the Channel and established a lodgement around the landing beaches in Kent and East Sussex without major loss, and that the defending British forces would have been unlikely to have dislodged them once ashore.
Kansas University Press (Originally published: London: Jonathan Cape, 1977.) . Dönitz, Karl (1997) Ten years and Twenty Days.
Referred to as the "German jetty" by local inhabitants, they remained standing for the next thirty-six years until demolition crews finally removed them in 1978–79, a testament to their durability. The German Army developed a portable landing bridge of its own nicknamed Seeschlange (Sea Snake).
The German official naval war historian, Vice Admiral Kurt Assmann, wrote in 1958: "Had the German Air Force defeated the Royal Air Force as decisively as it had defeated the French Air Force a few months earlier, I am sure Hitler would have given the order for the invasion to be launched - and the invasion would in all probability been smashed". An alternative, and very much a minority, perspective was advanced in 2016 by Robert Forczyk in We march against England.
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