Cancelled plan for German invasion of Britain in World War II
This article is about the planned German invasion of Britain. For the 1974 wargame based on this plan, see Operation Sea Lion (wargame).
Operation Sea Lion
Part of Western Front of World War II
Initial German plan
Operational scope
Normandy, the Belgian coastline, the English Channel and the English coastline; initial Army proposals of 25 July 1940 envisaging landings from Kent to Dorset, Isle of Wight and parts of Devon; subsequently refined to a confined group of four landing sites in East Sussex and western Kent
Planned
September 1940
Planned by
OKW
Objective
Elimination of the United Kingdom as a base of military operations against the Axis powers[1]
Outcome
Eventual cancellation and diversion of German, Italian, and other Axis forces for Operation Barbarossa
v
t
e
Western Front of World War II
Phoney War
River Forth
Saar
The Heligoland Bight
Wikinger
Luxembourg
Schuster Line
The Netherlands
Maastricht
Mill
The Hague
Rotterdam
Zeeland
The Grebbeberg
Afsluitdijk
Rotterdam Blitz
Belgium
Fort Eben-Emael
Hannut
David
Gembloux
La Lys
Ypres–Comines Canal
France
Sedan
Montcornet
Saumur
Arras
Boulogne
Calais
Dunkirk
Dynamo
Abbeville
Lille
Paula
1st Alps
Haddock Force
Britain
Kanalkampf
Adlertag
The Hardest Day
Battle of Britain Day
Sea Lion
1941–1943
Cerberus
Donnerkeil
Baedeker Blitz
Commando Raids
St Nazaire Raid
Dieppe Raid
1944–1945
Baby Blitz
Overlord
Chastity
Dragoon
Siegfried Line
Netherlands
Market Garden
Hürtgen Forest
Aachen
Queen
Scheldt
Bulge
Nordwind
2nd Alps
Colmar Pocket
Atlantic Pockets
Germany
Blackcock
Veritable
Grenade
Blockbuster
Lumberjack
Remagen
Cologne
Gisela
Undertone
Plunder
Varsity
Paderborn
Ruhr
TF Baum
Frankfurt
Würzburg
Kassel
Heilbronn
Nuremberg
Hamburg
Strategic campaigns
The Blitz
Defence of the Reich
Strategic Bombing Campaign
Raids on the Atlantic Wall
Battle of Atlantic
Operation Sea Lion, also written as Operation Sealion[2][3] (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe), was Nazi Germany's code name for their planned invasion of the United Kingdom. It was to take place during the Battle of Britain, nine months after the start of the Second World War. Following the Battle of France and that country's capitulation, Adolf Hitler, the German Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, hoped the British government would accept his offer to end the state of war between the two. He considered invasion to be a last resort, to be used only if all other options had failed.[4]
As a precondition for the invasion of Britain, Hitler demanded both air and naval superiority over the English Channel and the proposed landing sites. The German forces achieved neither at any point of the war. Further, both the German High Command and Hitler himself held serious doubts about the prospects for success. Nevertheless, both the German Army and Navy undertook major preparations for an invasion. These included training troops, developing specialised weapons and equipment, modifying transport vessels and the collection of a large number of river barges and transport ships on the Channel coast. However, in light of mounting Luftwaffe losses in the Battle of Britain and the absence of any sign that the Royal Air Force had been defeated, Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely on 17 September 1940. It was never put into action.
^Führer Directive 16 Archived 17 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, 16 July 1940.
^Cruickshank, Dan. "The German Threat to Britain in World War Two". BBC History. Archived from the original on 15 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^"Operation Sealion – History Learning Site". The History Learning Site. Archived from the original on 29 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
^"BBC – WW2 People's War – A Last Appeal to Reason by Adolf Hitler".
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