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Invasion!: Operation Sea Lion, 1940

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I have been fascinated by Operation Sea Lion (OSL) ever since I was a kid. I have an entire home library on the subject. Marix Evans book is a worthwhile addition to the genre. He does an excellent job covering in great detail the actual planning of the operation. In this respect his book is as good as Peter Schenck's the Invasion of England 1940. However, in the latter half of the book, Marix Evans tries his hand at a speculative account of the invasion, and I found this to be very unconvincing. Speculative fiction is clearly not his strongpoint. Nevertheless, if you are interested in OSL, it is worth picking up.

Invasion! Operation Sealion, 1940 by Martin Marix Evans (Longman) It's the summer of 1940 and the Nazis have crossed the English Channel to invade Britain. They advance north from the south coast and great swathes of southern England come under German control.

Fiction, of course, but an invasion of Britain was planned by Hitler to take place in the summer of 1940 - how far would the Germans have been able to advance? Would they have been successful?

The Battle of Britain was launched in July 1940, first against fighter airfields, and later, from 1 September, against London. On 16 July Hitler issued Fuhrer Directive No. 16 for preparations for a landing operation against England. Operation Sealion (as the landing was called) was then postponed on 17 September and cancelled on 12 October. This book explores the alternative scenario - that Sealion began as planned on 21 September.

Invasion! Operation Sealion 1940 follows the historical course of events up to 1 September, including the planning in Britain and Germany, and the aerial war. The British strategy for defending England is that actually adopted by General Alan Brooke when appointed to Southern Command on 26 June. In the second part of the book, Martin Marix Evans provides a fictional account of the invasion. This is based on detailed study of German geological and geographical analysis of the English terrain and the maps and handbooks that were published to convey this data to their commanders in the field. It is also founded on the Defence of Britain Project - a massive survey of 20th-century installations such as pill-boxes, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters and anti-tank ditches, whilst the behaviour of German troops is firmly based on actual events in Europe earlier in 1940.
In the summer of 1940 Britain stood almost alone, supported only by the Commonwealth countries, against the threat of German world domination. In the skies the Battle of Britain raged while frantic preparations were being made to resist what seemed inevitable - the landing of German forces on English shores. In Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands equally vigorous work was in hand to prepare for the invasion that was called Operation Sealion. Special underwater tanks were invented to land on British beaches, fast assault craft were designed to rush shock troops ashore and pontoon-mounted gun batteries were devised to protect the fleet of ships and barges that would carry two German armies and 250 tanks across the Channel. And then the Luftwaffe turned from assaults on RAF airfields to bombing London, a decision that cost them victory in the air - but what if that error had not been made?

If Operation Sealion had begun in September 1940, would the Royal Navy have thwarted Hitler's aims? Would the RAF have been able to prevent another blitzkrieg offensive like the one that shattered France? Would the remnants of the army that had been plucked from Dunkirk's beaches have been able to resist the Panzers?

The answers to these questions are worked out in Invasion! Operation Sealion 1940. The book draws on German and British archives and on modern research to construct a scenario both dramatic and realistic, illustrating what it takes to succeed in landing on hostile shores.

Marix Evans book "Invasion! Operation Sealion 1940", starts out with potential but falls short of expectation. The second half of this book is wasted on a 'what if' scenario that reminded me more of a NATO 'What if' exercise, than any WW-II battle report. The first half of Marix Evans book does do a fairly good job summarizing the essential elements of the forces involved and the problems facing each side in the conflict, however the analysis is unbalanced.

For example the book details the British 'anti invasion' fleet down to the armed trawler level, but fails to do the same for the German fleet. This gives an mistaken perception that the RN fleet outnumbered the German fleet 10:1. According to Peter Schenk , 320 German naval vessels were to escort the German invasion fleet of 4000 vessels. Marix Evans information points to an anti invasion fleet of about 1000 British warships and auxiliary vessels , including ~ 100 warships [Destroyers/Cruisers etc]. Of this total maybe 500 would have been readily available, near the channel to fight. This suggests the naval superiority was much more in question than the quoted 10:1 superiority in Destroyers suggests. Since the book instead clings to the implied 'absolute naval superiority' vision of Operation Sealion , the conclusion appears to be completely arbitrary and thus falls short.

The best part of this book is the lead-up to its main subject, a hypothetical invasion of Britain in 1940. The author provides a very concise, yet dramatic and readable, summary of the events of WWII from September 1939 through the fall of 1940. He also does a creditable job in outlining the known planning that went into Operation Sealion, but he goes way overboard in reproducing page after page of actual orders issued to specific units, which flesh out what might have been a very short book, but which would have been better put into an annex or footnotes. The key to a "what if?" scenario is to change just one thing and try to objectively play out history from that point. The operative change would have been a German decision to go after the RAF instead of London, seize control of the air, and launch the invasion. The author does that but then, apparently in order to let the British win, changes some British policies in very unhistoric ways, such as employing their excellent 90mm AA gun in an anti-tank role, just as the Germans did with their famous 88s. The British never did this despite plenty of motivation to do so. He also assumes a steady string of bad luck for the Germans and a world where over-age Home Guard militia outperforms German paratroopers. Since this is really just for fun anyway, a more exciting style in covering the supposed battles on British soil might have helped, but the overall rating for the book is marginal at best.

There are many myths about the possible invasion of England. There are several books that try to place scenarios of what would have happened. This book merely takes you into the facts so that you have an understanding of what the capabilities are of both sides. It is the only book I found that leaves the hype, myth, infighting and intrigue in the German High command behind. It presents the facts about the landing zones with a study of the both defensive and offensive capabilities.

It has one serious flaw in the final chapters it plays out a scenario of the attack and defense as the author sees it. While I wish this was left out it does allow the reader to see one idea on how the invasion would have played out. The reader can then use the informative front of the book to decide if the author is correct. I personally think he is a little to biased toward the British. I also wish he would have spent a little more time on the Battle of France.

The book raised some interesting points and worth a read. However I don't believe that the German invasion would have made it much further inland than 10 miles after the landings. The RN would have destroyed the majority or the landing craft, the RAF could have pulled back to its Northern bases and been out of reach of the Bomber whilst still providing cover for the ground forces. The defences and Home guard would of been enough to have seen off the para drops, remember it was luck and spirit in Normandy that got the para through. The germans would have been starved of ammo and food, the RN was at least 10-1 advantage in terms of destroyers and battleships. For the invasion to have worked the build up would have been much earlier and would have been obvious to the British and French what was coming, and in 1937 we could of started to get ready.

Anyone who knows me will know my fascination with the German plans to invade Britain and why.

I have read many books on the subject including Peter Fleming's Operation Sea Lion.

This book is not as well researched as most. And the conclusions are hard to accept since Britain was demoralized from France and very low on ammunition and the Germans were very good. Once the Krauts are across, they live off the land and can be supported by air. Once the panzers are across and first armored division done in it's over. It would have been as messy as Crete, but the result would still be the same.

Personally, I doubt Hitler really planned to do it. Though the plans were elaborate, the details and praparations were very shallow. I believe he was trying to bluff the Brits into a peace deal.