Hitlers' Greatest Blunder??

After the British withdrawal from France, the British Army was in disarray, there were few or no effective fighting units to speak of left in Britain, a German invasion would not have met a coordinated well-trained, well-equipped territorial army waiting on the beaches. The first stage of the battle of Britain nearly brought the RAF to its knees and the RN was having a hard time avoiding German mines and U-boats.

There were, however, three main obstacles to operation Sea Lion:
1. There weren't enough landing craft and gun boats to carry out the amphibious assault. Using canal barges would have been risky but doable in fair weather, if a beachhead could have been established from the air. However,
2. In the airborne assault on Holland the German paratroopers and airborne infantry had suffered considerable losses in men (many prisoners had been shipped to England) and
3. in material, especially gliders and transport aircraft. These losses could not be replenished in time for a summer attack in South England (They were used instead a year later for the attack on Crete).

Without an effective airborne assault to create a beachhead (and disrupt the English defences and lines of communication) an amphibian operation was too risky given the circumstances.

I disagree. There were already plans to evactuate the royal family and the personnel of government to Canada. Even if King George and Chruchill had been captured, it is ludicrous to think that the dominions would have caved to any Nazi demands.

...
There was no plan to even invade England. It was a bluff.

Besides, they could have just let England sit on their island. It's not like England would invade Germany.

//BW

Re: ...




Quotation from an endnote of chapter 3 in:
Conn, Stetson/Fairchild, Byron: The Framework of Hemoshere Defense, Washington, D. C., 1989
(online version at http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/Framework/)

I bet Hitler and his staff really had a plan to invade England.
But, the problem was: it was toooooooo late to think about it.

The plan took place just after the conquest of France and hitler's ludicrous demand for Britain
to surrender was rejected.

Too late.

I thinks nobody in this forum has read Hitler's book------my struggle(right?). Actually neither have i
But we could get a brief of it.

all together 3 steps:
1. conquer Poland :
For the Polish was "low grade" but gained many land also for the invasion of USSR)
2.conquer France
revenge for the WW1 (it is also Hitler's personal dream),and for the conveniece to invade Russian.
3.conquest russia:
you all know it.

so did you find something bizarre?
yeah, why didnt hitler think about England?
because of his inadvertence?
Because he thought Britain concerned merely her international interests. "I conquer my Europe, her take care of her empire. Will i bother her?"

haha, he just forgot one crucial point: Britain's world interests were based on the stability and the balance in Europe!

And when Hitler had realized that, it was truely too late.

I've written this some month ago on another thread:

my father had been twice "nearly across the Channel" during WWII: the first time, they thaught, it was just an exercise, although some officers acted, as if it was real. The second time, my father left nearly all his equipment in the barracks [filled the rucksack with paper instead his equipment]:wink:

(Some photos exist, which I had to search. I remember, that the white cliffs of Dover could be seen in the distance [well, if you had enough imagination :wink: ], and that the soldier's faces looked like being on a day trip.