Navy 'stopped invasion by Nazis'

[TrailblazingScot]

* 2 Territorial Divisions
* 1 Brigade from India
* 1 Brigade from new Zealand
* 1 Armoured Division
* 1 Canadian Division
* 1 Army Tank Brigade

You aren't seriously telling us those are the number of divisions available to cover the south coast at the time the invasion was thought imminent.

I'll look sometime but my memory from the 'World at War' series was that there were 16 divisions available by the time Sealion was though imminent.


Another thing to consider is that the RAF bombed the concentration of German barges and such that had been made in port. The prospect of concentrating such a naval invasion for was not all that good given bomber command could bomb them in port prior to the invasion. D-day was setup with complete air superiority protecting the gathering invasion force...

Final point...the Luftwaffe may be hot stuff against the Royal Navy during the day, but a la the battles of Guadal Canal I suspect good use of nighttime to move in, bombard the beaches, destroy any attempts to reinforce and resupply would minimalise damage. That said the RN would have definitely suicide charged some ships in to disrupt the initial landing.

My view is that had the Germans planned an invasion to coincide with the Fall of France then it was possible, but they did not anticipate the success they got from the war in France. The result was delay and that delay gave plenty of time for Britain to prepare and had the Germans attacked it would have been a disaster for them, but maybe have prevented them committing the worse folly of an invasion of Russia without their economy being geared up for total war.

 

[privatehudson]

You aren't seriously telling us those are the number of divisions available to cover the south coast at the time the invasion was thought imminent.

I'll look sometime but my memory from the 'World at War' series was that there were 16 divisions available by the time Sealion was though imminent.

According to Spartacus the British army had 50 divisions by June 1940 of which 13 served in France. I'd assume that most of the France veterans remained in the UK after Dunkirk to be re-constituted (one division was abandonned in Normandy and lost 2/3 of its manpower admitedly but...). The divisions mentioned were in the vicinity of 9th Army's landings, not right on the coast but available in the region.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWbritishA.htm

 

[steviejay]

Yeah but what strength were those divisions. A post-Dunkirk British division probably wouldn't be able to hold themselves out against a post-invasion of France German division, they just didn't have the heavy weaponry and/or any experienced divisions left intact after Dunkirk would have been split up to bolster newer green divisions with some experience

 

[Leifmk]

Yeah but what strength were those divisions. A post-Dunkirk British division probably wouldn't be able to hold themselves out against a post-invasion of France German division, they just didn't have the heavy weaponry and/or any experienced divisions left intact after Dunkirk would have been split up to bolster newer green divisions with some experience

However if the Germans had attempted Sealion their initial landing force wouldn't have any heavy weaponry either. Nor would the survivors of the crossing be organized to fight effectively. They conducted one exercise to prepare for the crossing, where fifty barges full of soldiers were towed one mile off the French coast and then brought in for a landing -- and less than half the troops got to where they were supposed to be; several barges failed to reach the shore at all and had to be rescued. This was done in daylight, in fair weather, after only a short trip, and with no obstacles or opposition.

 

[Joe Harker]

Sea lion was a deception plan to tie down British troops and the navy, if you look at the german plans and files, particularly among the kregmarine they it wasn't taken seriously and the invasion boats were essiently river craft. by July 1940 Hitler had his eye on the german living that he wanted in russia.
Also Britain had a defencesive line inland from the south and east coast which would have withstand hevay fighting. Also Churchill was willing, in a last ditched attempt to use gas on troops landing at the beach