What If? Operation Sea Lion

0:00 September 19th, 1941. Soldiers of Germany's 16th Army cling to the sides of a barge as it sails through the waters of the English Channel. On their flanks, hundreds of craft float to the shore. As their swaying barge approaches at an agonizing pace, sudden explosions ring out as nearby boats strike naval mines. Soldiers leap into the surf, facing a gauntlet of obstacles and machine gun fire. Some are cut down before reaching the sand. The rest press onward. Their destination, London. Cenamed Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of Great Britain aimed

0:46 to capture the south of England and seize London, knocking the British out of the war early before turning east. Planning for the operation relied on a German victory after Dunkirk and on winning the Battle of Britain. The complexities of a cross- channel invasion forced Adolf Hitler to depend on the Luftvafa for air superiority. The Criggs Marina's relative weakness to the Royal Navy and the need to protect a fleet carrying tens of thousands of troops required the German air force to play a critical role. The Luftvafa would need to transport supplies and deploy the Falam Jagger, its elite paratroopers, to break British defenses and ease the landing forces approach to

1:33 shore. The Criggs Marina would serve in an auxiliary role, creating an undersea blockade to choke the UK's supply lines. In the leadup to the invasion, the Navy planned to seal the channel and ferry the ground forces to the beach heads. A critical shortage of landing craft meant German planners pressed into service any ship they could find among defeated foes or allies. Shallow drafted barges and cargo ships would make up most of the landing craft. By August they had secured 1900 barges, 168 merchant ships, 386 tugs and trwers and 1,600 motorboats. The plan called for the Vermach to follow the Reich's planes and

2:18 paratroopers. However, it had little experience with contested amphibious landings. Commanders would have to devise tactics and engineer equipment to surmount the geographic and military challenges soldiers faced landing on the beaches. German engineers would be rigging panzers to wade and crawl through the tide to reach the beaches and protect the infantry. All amidst the hail of enemy gunfire. War planners divided the invasion into three echelons. a landing force of 10 infantry divisions, a follow-up wave of artillery and tanks, and a third wave of infantry reserves. In total, they expected 260,000 men would be needed to execute the invasion. Commanders selected

3:05 beaches along the channels rocky cliffs and shores, hoping that diversionary movements toward East Anglia might draw British troops and defenses east away from the true landing zones. Once ashore, German forces were to press northward to London and secure southern England. But a cross channel invasion favored the British defenders. Sea and weather patterns made German movements predictable. British coastal defenses, including spotters, patrol planes, and ships, remained on high alert. The defenders held the numerical advantage and were fighting on home soil with prepared defenses and prepositioned troops. Britain didn't hold all the cards, however. After escaping from

3:51 Dunkirk, the army was disorganized and downtrodden. The home guard was undertrained and like their army counterparts, undere equipped. British commanders did not know which beaches the German high command selected for landing. Sea Lion called for a broad landing front stretching from east of Brighton to the west of Dover before converging northward. By September 15th, Hitler decided to strike a decisive blow against the United Kingdom. The Luftvafa had overcome British air defenses and driven the RAF from the skies. Radar stations were destroyed, airfields rendered unusable, and Britain's fighter reserves depleted. Germany had won the battle of Britain, but the British

4:37 refused to surrender. Hitler faced a determined enemy. Unwilling to yield despite its losses, chief of the Lufafa high command, Herman Guring ordered a final push. Bombers targeted RAF radar stations, airfields, factories, and arsenals. With air superiority allegedly secured, Hitler felt ready to commence seal lining. In our real timeline, any hope Germany had of successfully invading Great Britain hinged on accurate intelligence. But their plans quickly unraveled. Every spy they sent across the channel was either captured or defected, feeding disinformation back to German command. In a digital age, online threats work much the same way. Unseen, deceptive,

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6:55 favor. The marina was fortunate that the Royal Navy did not destroy the anchored fleet at Marabir, which would bolster German naval strength. The channel's waters were also unusually calm during September 1940, alleviating fears of capsizing. For their part, the Royal Navy was stretched thin. It had to defend the home islands and shield the vital sea lanes that supplied its war effort and fed its people. Moreover, the Navy was committed to fighting the Germans and Italians in the Mediterranean. Submarine warfare took its toll on British shipping and warships. And while the formidable Royal Navy had proven it could endure access air attacks, German bombers had begun adopting more effective anti-ship

7:42 tactics. But their success was not guaranteed. Despite these unresolved challenges, Hitler chose to press forward with the invasion. Operation Sea Lion was scheduled to commence in the fall of 1940. On September 19th, the invasion force was poised to strike across the channel. German soldiers herded onto the flotillaa of watercraft and ships. Luftwafa fighters, bombers, and transport planes roared overhead in the early morning hours north and east. Anxious soldiers crouched in the cramped barges watching transport planes loaded

8:29 with paratroopers streak across the sky. If the airborne troops broke the British lines, little would stand between them and London. As German planes approached, RAF patrol aircraft and the Royal Navy picket ships detected them and quickly alerted British command. Within minutes, anti-aircraft batteries opened fire, lighting up the sky. Then, from their hidden airfields, the last squadrons of RAF fighters conserved for this moment tore into the German formations, downing vulnerable transports. British troops and the Home Guard met paratroopers who made it to the ground. Many still untangling their parachutes as they came under fire. With the airborne assault collapsing on contact, sabotage and rear

9:17 area disruption never materialized. And while the skies turned against the invaders, British defenders rushed to their coastal positions only to find another threat looming. Out on the water, as far as the eye could see, a vast collection of barges, twers, and converted merchant ships steamed steadily toward the English shore. The Royal Navy pulled its nearby fleets to defend the homeland and broke through the Axis surface fleet guarding both ends of the channel. With the Luftvafa already fully engaged, the amphibious flotillaa was exposed as British warships picked off the lumbering tugboats and barges. In confusion, German ships and boats succumbed to capsizing and mechanical breakdowns.

10:03 Deviations from the course led some vessels into naval mines. The marina rushed after the Royal Navy, trying to keep up and protect the landing force. Meanwhile, German air cover faltered. Fighters and dive bombers cycled to rearm, leaving the fleet exposed. The heavier transports carrying tanks and artillery were caught mid channel and sunk while the third wave never launched. Britain had won the day. Its naval and air forces broke the invasions before it landed. And the Vermacht suffered devastating losses. The failure stunned Hitler. What had been envisioned as a swift knockout blow instead exposed the limits of German air and naval

10:48 power. Seeking to preserve what remained of his forces, he halted further offensives and shifted to blockade tactics. But the illusion of invincibility had cracked. With divisions lost and material depleted, plans for invading the Soviet Union no longer seemed inevitable. Hitler still looked east, but now with hesitation. [Music] Realizing the risks of a rushed invasion, German planners convinced Hitler that they needed to delay Sea Lion until the spring of 1941. Time worked in favor of both the invaders and defenders. Supplies flowed into the

11:34 British Isles, and the defenders constructed a dense network of fortifications. The ensuing months allowed the Criggs Marina to clear the naval mines from the channel and the Luftvafa to intercept mine laying ships. American support propped up a struggling British defensive effort. Though it was not enough to get the RAF fully off the ground with unchallenged control over the skies of southern England, the landing beaches and drop zones would receive adequate luftwafa coverage. The RAF would have to pick and choose which areas to defend, and the Royal Navy rarely conserved its strength in the face of threats from above and below. Cromwell, a single code word, crackled over telephones to all British military

12:20 commands. On April 1st, 1941, German troops masked in northern France and boarded the landing flotilla. With a clear plan of coordinated bombings and parachute drops, German airborne troops under the command of General Kurt Studen achieved many of their objectives, demolishing bridges, cutting telephone wires, and ambushing confused Tommies during the early morning hours. Waves of aircraft swept across British positions along the shore and punched holes in shore-based and ground defenses. The potential threat of air attack made British commanders cautious and slow to respond to the oncoming danger of the German landing armada. As the first wave of German infantry chugged over the

13:07 horizon, some zones along the front looked secure. Others were less promising. German ships loaded with seasick soldiers chugged into the maelstrom. Axis troops who trudged into the surf faced a gauntlet of traps and gunfire. British artillery pill boxes and machine gun nests pushed German forces into disarray before they reached the obstacles. Barbed wire and landmines clogged the sandbarss and dunes. Entrenched British soldiers and heavy guns waited. Once the Germans were in range, the defenders opened fire. Shells smashed into landing craft and machine guns cut men down. But the chief commander of the British home forces, General Alan Brookke, soon realized his

13:54 invasion preparations were subpar. British infantry and armored divisions were too far from the beaches to sufficiently block the oncoming tide of landing soldiers. The 10 German divisions in the first wave saw some success at remote beaches where the defenders had chosen not to contest the landings. But these troops soon encountered a second reserve line of men, tanks, and artillery. The speciallydesigned German panzers were too few to provide consistent fire support for the infantry, and the second wave had not yet landed. The troops that landed unopposed rushed to support their comrades under fire. Though reeling and falling back from some beach heads, British defenders reorganized their lines and ordered stiff resistance

14:40 further inland. To defend against further advances, General Brookke ordered a rapid counterattack with armored divisions. He hoped to contain the German forces landing on the beaches, but his counterattack failed. British armored columns struggled to reach the front. Tank commanders were disoriented and the advancing formations were repeatedly hit from the air. Meanwhile, a second wave of Lufa planes drove into the British positions and warships. Shooka dive bombers blasted trenches and pillboxes, but anti-aircraft guns shrieked back and reserve RAF squadrons desperately scrambled to intercept any dive bombers and fighters they could reach. Chaos raged along the beaches and cliffs of southern England.

15:30 Complicating matters, small groups of Royal Navy warships broke through the defensive patterns on the western edges of the channel. They steamed at full speed toward the heavily loaded landing ships and reserve waves. Scattered elements of the British fleet pounced on every German vessel they could reach. While those Axis craft caught out in the open suffered heavy losses, over half of the second and third waves managed to land successfully. The Luftwampa scrambled to harry the British warships and slow down the pace of their attacks on the Vermach landing forces. The Royal Navy pulled back as squadron after squadron buzzed over the defending battle groups. The RAF followed suit, retreating to conserve its planes and pilots. Once the

16:18 waterways were cleared, General Fran Haldder, in charge of planning and commander of the invasion, ordered the ground divisions to be reinforced by sea and air. The Vermacht pushed forward into the teeth of the British defenses. But unlike in France or Poland, where Blitz Greek tactics outmaneuvered and stunned the enemy, the many obstacles and sheer mass of defending forces in a relatively compact front blunted their usual effectiveness. The Germans still made progress northward, but at great cost. Replenishing losses was difficult across the channel. Getting fuel and food to fight on became increasingly complicated as the Royal Navy and RAF targeted supply ships and aircraft over

17:03 several weeks of fighting. By the winter of 1941, the invasion settled into a stalemate, still kilometers away from London. Though seasoned in combined arms warfare, German forces met unrelenting resistance. For every trench taken or position overrun, another lay behind it. The defenders quickly adapted to the Vermach's tactics, developing a defense in-depth strategy to exhaust German troops. As the fighting dragged on, neither the British government nor Hitler saw this status quo as sustainable. Parliament called for a vote of no confidence in Winston Churchill and his replacement, Edward Wood, Lord Halifax, opened negotiations with the Germans. The result was a fragile

17:50 armistice. Britain agreed to recognize Germany's continental gains while Hitler ordered his troops to withdraw from English soil. The Vermacht was drained, its supply lines strained, and its aura of invincibility broken. Yet Hitler pressed ahead, determined to secure victory against the Boleviks. He redirected his battered forces eastward. Operation Barbarosa was rescheduled for the spring of 1942. Meanwhile, Britain, though bloodied, began to rearm. Both sides prepared for the next phase of the war. If Operation Sea Lion had been launched, a German defeat might have derailed the Reich's ambitions to wage war on the

18:36 USSR indefinitely. Perhaps another period of the phony war would simmer, with each side wearily eyeing and probing the other. A German victory, however, could have changed everything. With Britain wounded, the Americans isolated, and the Soviets vulnerable, it remains to be seen how far Hitler's fortunes might have gone. [Music]