Operation"Seelöwe" (Operation Sealion) |
From the papers obtained after the War, it was discovered some what the German's had planned. In the "Military Requirements of the Army High Command, and Attitude of the Naval Staff'. 24c.“. The Naval Staff, after studying the Führer’s Directive of 16th July, made the following entry, dated 20th July: “The General Staff of the Army has given it intentions for carrying out the operations, as follows: about 100,000 men with appropriate equipment including heavy gear, must be transported in the first wave from the area Dunkirk-Cherbourg to the area between Ramsgate and Lyme Bay. Further waves must follow in quickest succession, so that the formation of a local bridgehead may be fallowed in the shortest time by a war of movement on the Island. This demands the most rapid turn round of transport after disembarkation of the first echelon.” |
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The requirements of the Army High Command resulted in the following
Transport Organisation dated 25th July: - Army requirements for the
first wave. About 90,000 men with appropriate war equipment, 650 tanks,
4,500 horses, for this purpose he following are necessary:- For the
area Ostend- Boulogne, about 550 barges, 185 tugs, 370 motorboats. For
the area Le Harve-Cherbourg, about 45 ships, 90 barges, 30 tugs, 180
motorboats. In addition, the Luftwaffe to meet the demands of the General
Staff requires the transportation of about 52 A.A. batteries in the
first wave.” - “In the second wave the Army High Command
requires the transportation of 160,000 men and equipment.” |
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While the spitfires and hurricanes were fighting the Luftwaffe in the skys of Britan, in the “Battle of Britain” . On the other side of the channel, the Fuhrer's build up for the invasion of Britain, had the attention of RAF Bomber Command. |
For
the invasion to succeed the Germans had to defeat the Royal Air Force.
The air offensive began on 12th August 1940. At first the Germans concentrated
on the radar stations and airfields of the RAF. Unknown to the Germans
these tactics soon had the RAF almost on its knees. However, the Germans
changed tactics and started bombing London, and the aircraft factories,
thereby allowing the RAF to regroup. |
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The ensuing Battle of Britain saw the Luftwaffe fail to achieve adequate air supremacy for Sealion to be launched so was postponed, at the request of the Naval Staff, from 15 September to 21 September due to delays in preparations. The invasion force had to contend with RAF raids on the embarkation ports and coastal bombing, shelling from the Royal Navy and from the British long range guns firing across the Straits, the Channel naval blockage and the many mine fields. The German troop moral seemed to fear most in the channel crossing was the thought of walls of fames in the English Channel Flame Barrage. In September 1940 the British War office for Aerial Reconnaissance ‘MI14’, claimed that between the Dutch German frontier and Le Harve there were 2,500 invasion barges, some of which were asbestos lined invasion barges fitted with foam type extinguishers and an oxygen supply for breathing. German troops had been made to take part in exercises in special light weight asbestos suits going through water covered with burning oil.
On 15 December 1940,
The New York Times ran a story claiming that tens of thousands of German
troops had been 'consumed by fire' in two failed invasion attempts.
In the local press it was claimed that forty burnt bodies of German
troops were washed up on the beaches of the Southeast. In September
1940, heavy numbers of German troops were being admitted with severe
burns for treatment, some replayed stories to the nurses that they had
been in aluminium barges, and that the sea was ablaze, and that the
RAF had attacked with incendiary bombs. |
On
15th September a decision was reached that due to weather and operational
difficulties to delay the initial ferry crossing planned for 16th September
and then it was decided with the approach of the winter
weather, Hitler was forced to abandon
plans for Operation Sealion indefinitely, turning his attention to the
Eastern front after which, he would commence operations for the invasion
of Britain. Fortunately for Britain, Russia proved for the Germans a
formidable opponent, and the German invasion force never came. |
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