Operation Sea Lion

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 scopeNormandy, 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
PlannedSeptember 1940
Planned byOKW
ObjectiveElimination of the United Kingdom as a base of military operations against the Axis powers[1]
OutcomeEventual cancellation and diversion of German, Italian, and other Axis forces for Operation Barbarossa

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.

  1. ^ Führer Directive 16 Archived 17 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, 16 July 1940.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "Operation Sealion – History Learning Site". The History Learning Site. Archived from the original on 29 May 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  4. ^ "BBC – WW2 People's War – A Last Appeal to Reason by Adolf Hitler".