Why didn't Hitler invade Britain

A. Peter.griff wanted to know why Hitler pulled back from invading Britain after he conquered France during the early days of the Second World War. He also asked: Would he have been able to conquer us too There is a quick answer to this - and one that may seem unpalatable to many. Hitler, historians now believe, never meant to invade Britain.

Q. But what about Operation Sealion
A. Sealion was certainly the codename for an invasion, but it was probably only a theoretical plan - one that had never seriously been considered.

Q. Oh come on. He invaded Poland, France, Holland, Belgium - why not Britain
A. When Hitler invaded Poland, he did not expect Britain to engage in a full-scale war over it. He kept hoping for peace throughout the early stages of the war. After the fall of France Hitler expected to be able to make a peace treaty with Britain so that he could attack Russia.

Q. Why
A. There is much evidence that he actually respected the British Empire - cynics would say (unkindly) that it was just another right-wing dictatorship - and his main goal was always expansion to the East, especially the invasion of Russia.

Q. But surely it would not have taken much to conquer Britain
A. Don't you believe it. Britain, let us not forget, is an island, populated by an island race. We were well-armed - and we had both the Empire and (if push came to shove) America as allies. Hitler knew that focusing his entire war effort on Britain would seriously delay his invasion of Russia, because he could not overwhelm both enemies at once.

Russia was his most powerful enemy. Britain in 1940 was incapable of significant action against Germany. Britain had been pushed out of Europe, lost much of its army, its air force was capable of only limited bombing raids against Germany, and it was fighting to retain its possessions in North Africa.

Q. But how could Britain have defended against the Nazi might
A. There are four factors necessary for an amphibious invasion:

• The ability to transport a sufficient invasion force to the landing zone
• The ability to supply that force once it has landed.
• Air superiority
• And the ability to protect the invasion force and its supply lines from enemy naval attack.

Q. So ...
A. Germany possessed none of these:

• Germany had few landing craft to transport an invasion force across the English Channel. Sealion envisaged using Rhine river barges across the Channel. But they were not designed for use in the ocean, and would swamp in anything other than the mildest weather. Without a major addition to Germany's landing craft fleet, they could not hope to send more than ten infantry divisions with very few heavy weapons in support. A force of this size would be slaughtered by Britain's defence force, which would outnumber the invaders.
• In addition, Churchill's government would fight dirty to repel the Nazis, using poison gas and flooding the Channel with burning oil.
• Germany was ill-equipped to supply any invasion force. Germany was merchant shipping power, like Britain. It lacked freighters and those it possessed were not big enough for transporting tanks.
• Britain was producing more strike aircraft than the Nazis. It also had the Spitfire and the Hurricane. Its air supremacy over the Channel was almost 100%. The British also had radar.
• The Germans would not have been able to protect their supply route across the Channel. The Channel is a tiny stretch of water. A combined effort by the RAF and the might of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet would, simply, have blown them out of the water.

Q. So Sealion wasn't a runner
A. No - and Nazi High Command realised this.

Q. But the speculation still goes on
A. Oh yes' histories will be written, documentaries filmed and what-if novels published. And now you can even buy computer games to re-enact an invasion scenario'

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By Steve Cunningham