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No German Invasion of Britain

Current Rating:		(3.50)
# of Ratings: 8

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1. Sundiszno , on 5/7/2004 7:22:00 PM, said:

I don't classify this as a "blunder" on the part of the Germans because it's highly doubtful that the Germans could have pulled off an amphibious invasion of Britain. I recently read an old book about what would have happened to the British if the Germans had been successful in invading, but the whole scenario rested on the premise that the Luftwaffe was able to defeat the RAF. That didn't happen, and for that reason, among others, there was no invasion. The Germans didn't have either the doctrine or knowhow for an amhibious assault, nor the requisite types or numbers of amphibious ships for such an assault. The blunder would have been an invasion of Britain, rather than the decision not to invade.
(1 people found this comment helpful, 0 did not)

2. paul35 , on 5/6/2004 10:35:00 AM, said:

I think if Hitler had invaded Britain then history may be diffrent.Without Britain in the war Hitler couldve concentrated 100% on the eastern front and russia wouldve been starved of early vital supplies that were shipped from britain.Also the u-boats used to patrol the atlantic couldve been used elsewhere,maybe in the pacific theatre to help japan against the U.S also the planes,guns and manpower to defend germany from the allied bombing campaign would have been used elsewhere.Its also unlikely D-day wouldve happend thus ridding germany of a western front and freeing even more of her resources.Alternatively without D-day and the presence of allied troops in western europe the red army may not have stopped at western germany but carried on going all the way through western europe.Others thoughts on this comment would be appreciated :)
(3 people found this comment helpful, 1 did not)

3. irishgit , on 4/2/2004 7:41:00 PM, said:

The contemporary "wisdom" is that this would have been a walk over for the Axis. In fact, any amphibious landing is a risky and far from certain enterprise, even when full air and naval superiority are achieved. Against an RAF even partially intact and a more or less fully intact Home Fleet, any invasion would have been a catastrophe for German arms. The Luftwaffe was moderately well on the way to achieving the aim of destroying the RAF when their objectives were changed from airbases to cities. This allowed the RAF the breathing room to regroup and ultimately blunt the Luftwaffe assault. As others have observed, even had the RAF been destroyed or minimized, the Home Fleet was far from defenseless. The Luftwaffe had not shown any great effectiveness at attacking naval vessels from the air, and is absolutely certain that the British would have risked the Home Fleet in an attack on the invasion fleet. Given the relative naval skills and ordnance this would have been a very bloody affair for the Kriegsmarine. Had the Germans attempted SeeLowe, the decisive combat of the war might not have been in the streets and rubble of Stalingrad, but on the sands of Pevensey.
(5 people found this comment helpful, -1 did not)

4. PzKpfw_VI_E , on 4/1/2004 2:02:00 PM, said:

I don't like this one personally. I think Hitler knew the situation well and knew that he could not beat the British in a Naval engagement and an amphibious assault. Operation Seelow was formed by a man named Erich Raeder. His goal was not to formulate a perfect plan, but to formulate a situation to show Hitler that an amphibious invasion of Britain was impossible. This is how I see it (Enkidu, this may look familiar): Well, the Heer and in general the Werhmacth was not experienced with amphibious landings on the scale of Operation Sealion. The Kriegsmarine was too small and could have been easily defeated by the Home Fleet. Also, Sealion was not a well thought out plan. 16 divisions were expected to hit the beaches of Britain on the first day of the invasion (9 on the first wave and 7 on the second wave). But, these 16 divisions were expected to hold a 200+ mile beachhead for no less then 15 days while a relive force assembled in the Channel. The first aspect of Sealion was for the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF. After the RAF was destroyed, the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine were expected to destroy the Home Fleet. If step one succeeded, step two would be an even greater problem. Step two was to occur ASAP because the invasion would occur soon after. Look at Dunkirk, the Luftwaffe was unable to stop the evacuation of 300,000 troops from a beachhead. How would they have been able to destroy one of the largest and most powerful fleets ever. If step two was not achieved before the invasion was to be held, Sealion was sure to fail. As landing crafts departed for the invasion, the Home Fleet would easily break through the escort ships and destroy a lot of the crafts before they even came close to the beaches. If any troops were to make it ashore, British defenses were good and there is a possibility that the British would resort to using chemical weapons if the tide seemed to be in the favor of the Heer. If the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine did, somehow, complete step two, it was still doubtful that an Army like the Heer that had little experience with amphibious operations would succeed. But, I still think that step two was almost impossible to complete with such a small force like the Kriegsmarine against the worlds largest Navy (at the time) even thought they were spread around the world. Hitler didn't have enough interest in Britain for Sealion to succeed. The Germans needed a much larger surface fleet (and a bigger fleet in general) and long range support aircraft. Any invasion of Britain by the Germany Werhmacht in WW2 was impossible, they just couldn't adapt to Naval Warfare on such a large scale.
(6 people found this comment helpful, 0 did not)

5. JonTheMan , on 4/1/2004 3:30:00 AM, said:

It's a good thing they didn't as well, since all we would've had to stop them was the "Home guard". For the uninitiated the Home guard is a force of men formed in case of the possibility of invasion comprised mostly of men who were either too young or too old to join the "proper" army. Each Squadron was usually led by Mr. Cutts the butcher or Mr. Biggins the farmer and were armed with a terrifying arsenal of spades and umbrellas. Of course it probably wasn't that bad, however it's quite certain that the real "Battle of Britain" was going on in the skies and without the brave pilots in the RAF, Germany could quite easily have executed the first successful invasion of Britain since 1066. After all, Churchill also said "Never have so many (The British people) owed so much to so few (The pilots)."
(3 people found this comment helpful, 2 did not)

6. BugahaNE , on 4/1/2004 12:04:00 AM, said:

The definate downfall of Adolph Hitler was he definately underestimated the determination of his enemies. After the fall of France, he stated he didn't know why Britian just didn't face it's fate and just surrender. Yes, at that time, Germany's air and ground power were vastly superior, but with an invasion of Britian he would have found himself facing the British stubborness and been in the middle of a guerrila war armed from abroad by the USA. Churchhill's famous speech would have rang true, " we will fight in the hills etc. , we will never surrender".
(1 people found this comment helpful, 3 did not)

7. Enkidu , on 3/31/2004 6:00:00 PM, said:

Great list--I love speculative history. I think that any attempt to invade Britain, with the RAF intact, would have been a disaster (for Germany). It would have been almost impossible to land the kind of force necessary without air superiority, and probably a lot of the transports would have been destroyed before even getting across the Channel. But who knows--a failed attempt might have shortened the war.
(4 people found this comment helpful, 0 did not)

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