Operation Sealion: Could it have been pulled off?

[monkspider]

Germany's plan to invade the British isles after the fall of France, entitled OperationL Sealion, was not to be. But is there any way the Germans could have done it? I am of the opinion that it would have been quite possible if Germany had concentrated the Luftwaffe on destroying radar stations, harassing the British navy and other important military targets rather than fireboming civillans they would have probably been able to cross the channel. What would have happened from there is harder to predict, quickly capturing the industrial rich cities of southern England and encircling London might have been enough to cause the English to fold, but it is tough to say. Another hypothetical scenario to consider in this discussion what would have happened if the Germans captured the 600,000 man expeditionary force at Dunkirk. With the British army as prisoners, Germany would have had a strong hand on the bargaining table.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Probably.. but it required Hitler to get over his fear of amphibious invations.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

It would have been a huge gamble and a radical change of Hitler's previous tactics. Unlike (for exanple) Russia, the British defences were well-prepared and dug in hard, and there wouldn't be another "Maginot by-pass" opportunity.

It might have worked, but would most likely have been a Phyrric victory with very heavy losses for relatively little gain. Frankly, it would have been far more sensible to clamp down on the blockade and avoid any catastrophic errors like invading Russia.

[Capt Dizle]

All Hitler ever wanted Germany to be was the equivalent of what England already was. The white dominant world race. Hitler would never have invaded the British Isles.

He aspired to be Britain's partner in world domination. Nothing more but certainly nothing less.

[Stefu]

Not without alien space bats.

[Sandman]

Not a chance

The Battle of Britain was a foregone conclusion, for several reasons.

Firstly, Britain had more fighters than Germany at the start of the campaign, and produced more aircraft than than the Germans.
Britain had an advanced command and control network, far better than anything the Germans had. The German fighters didn't even have radios.
British pilots that were shot down could be returned to the fight reasonably quickly, whilst German pilots ended up in POW camps.
The Germans lacked four-engined bombers. The Junkers 88 could carry 4000lbs of bombs. The Lancaster could carry 20000lbs. The Stuka divebomber took heavy casualties and was soon withdrawn.

If the Germans had managed to destroy the airfields in South-East England, the invasion would still be doomed.

The Royal airforce planned to relocate to the Midlands, and in the event of an invasion, would sweep downwards.
The Royal Navy, which was based at Scapa Flow, would also sweep down to the Channel, regardless of the risk, and attack the German transports.
The Germans had no proper amphibious landing equipment, and planned to use barges from the Rhine. These were scarcely seaworthy, poor weather, let alone ships or planes, would sink them.
The Germans had no dedicated naval air units, and it's unlikely the Luftwaffe could have stopped the RN destroying the barges.
Landing German troops would be confronted with barbed wire, mine fields, poision gas, anti-tank obstacles and over 25000 pillboxes.

[Giancarlo]

Well what about the V1s and V2s? If Germany redirected those a bit differently, they could of made a mess of the British military.

[Sandman]

The V weapons did not appear until after the Battle of Britain was won.

[Giancarlo]

Oh, thanks for clearing that up. Well Hitler could of gone back and started using it against Britain.

[Hueij]

I dunno. If Goebbels didn't **** up at Dunkirk (English sp?) and the Luftwaffe concentrated on the English radar installations and airfields instead of London they might have pulled it of. Thankfully we will never know.

[Giancarlo]

What happens if the Germans would of won the war all together? Questions like that should remain unanswered and unknown.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Fez
What happens if the Germans would of won the war all together? Questions like that should remain unanswered and unknown.

For one, the Jewish people would have been exterminated And there were some vague plans to relocate the Dutch to the Crimea after the original people there were... [I leave that to your imagination...]

[Zero]

Originally posted by Fez
What happens if the Germans would of won the war all together? Questions like that should remain unanswered and unknown.

Probably a big european facist state for couple of decade followed by a revolution at some point.

Same would have been true with soviet union conquered the world. No government regime is permeanant...

For the Jew question, probably more would have been executed, or maybe less.. since they were speeding up the execution at the end of the war. Jews would not have been 'extinct' though, there were Jews living outside of Europe too.

[Dinner]

The only way the Germans could have invaded Britain is if they had gained air superiority over the RAF. Since the British had better planes, were for warned of any German attacks by radar, and the Germans had half their air force in eastern Europe it is unlikely they would ever have gained the necisary air cover to make a successful landing.

[Giancarlo]

Many jews left Germany before the whole war started... and before they were put in concentration camps.

I think Hitler would of ruled Europe for a few decades too if he won the war... maybe up to the mid 1960s, when he would be forced to give up some of his occupied land because of revolution. Thank goodness that didn't happen and the allies defeated the nazis.