Operation Sealion
| Operation Sea Lion | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Western Front of the Second World War | |
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| Operational scope | Normandy, the Belgian coast line, the English Channel and the English coast line from Kent to Dorset, Isle of Wight and parts of Devon, but principally in Sussex and Kent |
| Planned | September 1940 |
| Planned by | OKW |
| Objective | Elimination of the United Kingdom as a base of military operations against the Axis Powers |
| Outcome | Eventual cancellation and diversion of German and Italian forces for Operation Barbarossa |
Operation Sea Lion (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe) was Nazi Germany's code name for the plan for an invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Fall of France, Adolf Hitler, the German Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, hoped the British government would seek a peace agreement and he reluctantly considered invasion only as a last resort if all other options failed. As a precondition, he specified the achievement of both air and naval superiority over the English Channel and the proposed landing sites, but the German forces did not achieve this at any point during the war and both the German High Command and Hitler himself had serious doubts about the prospects for success. A large number of barges were gathered together on the Channel coast, but, with air losses increasing, Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely on 17 September 1940 and it was never put into action.
Adolf Hitler hoped for a negotiated peace with the UK, and made no preparations for amphibious assault on Britain until the Fall of France. At the time, the only forces with experience of, or modern equipment for naval landings were the Japanese, at the Battle of Wuhan in 1938.
In September 1939, the German invasion of Poland was a success, but this infringed on both a French and a British alliance with Poland and both countries declared war on Germany. On 9 October, Hitler's "Directive No. 6 for the Conduct of the War" planned an offensive to defeat these allies and "win as much territory as possible in Holland, Belgium, and northern France to serve as a base for the successful prosecution of the air and sea war against England".
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