Sealion: nazis ready to face the navy?

von R,


Do you realise that after Dunkirk, the 344,000 men, minus the French who went back to southern France I believe, were all sent either on leave to recover their strength, or to hospital to get fixed up.

Within about a month, they were refreshed and waiting for the Krauts to try their hand at mass suicide.

Flat lands had old cars and buses on them, and pill boxes were scattered all over the island.

Sometimes I think germans are not very bright.


OJ

 

Well, they can't be that daft.

They had the good sense not to attempt it

They went and did something much easier...They invaded the Soviet Union :lol:

 

Mind you, OJ, those were river barges taken from the Rhine, Maas, Loire, etc trade. Now you are not going to try to convince me ( )that these barges with such a low freeboard are in any way able to face any kind of sea. And what are they going to to when (if!) they reach a beach, lob their load overboard? They don't have any unloading ramps like a proper LCT, they were made to be tied along a pier!



These ones are at Duisburg.

We've discussed this at length and to exhaustion in a former thread already.

With so much water this must be a wet dream

 

ZR,

"We've discussed this at length and to exhaustion in a former thread already."


With so many Forums on this wonderful thing called the Internet, it is bound to be full of similar subjects and opinions, no matter where we go. I am a member of probably half a dozen political, economic and military forums and they are ALL full to the brim with the same problem.

It is still all wonderful fun, and keeps this old codger young!


OJ

 

LOL Za. There have been at least 5 threads on this subject on this site alone :deadhorse:. And IIRC most of those threads have been Closed LOL . This is one of those Zombie subjects that just wont die LOL. And usually the ones who bring it up are the ones rooting for the Nazis to win LOL .

 

Any attempt of Sea Lion = close to 100% casualties for Axis!

You can wet dream as much as you want, but unless you have working doctrne for amphibiouse landings it is a suicide trying something on a scale of Sea Lion.

Allied did't start with Overlord either. They had Sicily, Italy etc.
Put RAF and RN into the mix and things look pretty bad for Axis.

 

Yes, yes, yes!!!

May I welcome you to the sealion-bashing club?

Oh and this is the type of post I have made countless times, the Royal family would not abandon Britian and the whole purpose of the RN was to stop an invasion.

 

What also intrigues me is just what would have happened if the Krauts HAD been stupid enough to try 'SeaLion'.

Most agree it would have ben a disaster, but how would that have affected Hitlers plans and actions in later years?

Would 'Barbarossa' gone ahead?

Would Hitler have simply sat on what he had, and started a cold war?

Comments?


OJ

 

He would probably rant and rave and blame his generals.

 

Not yet Jeff. Its too much fun so far :eatpopcorn1: :eatpopcorn: .Though It should be over in the "What If" section. its just amazing how much people can :deadhorse: and :headbonk: .

 

You're right, but what also happens is that it's best if one does a search on the forum first, the advantage is that we don't need to go about repeating old arguments. I see no problem with resurrecting an old thread and adding something new to it, now starting afresh with old arguments is boring

Also I don't see any problem with being an old codger, I rate as a middle fart

No K-word? How about 'Gli Tedeschi´?

 

But as I had mentioned Za. Some of those threads are no longer open LOL.

 

Further to one of the comments re the Royal Family going to Canada.

I DID read years ago that they gathered up ALL the valuables, including probably the Crown Jewels, State Documents and securities, and shipped them to Canada quite early in the war.

Can I say "K****S"?


John

 

You weren't on your own. There were also Canadian and other Commonwealth Troops in Britain. For awhile, the main military equipment for the army was Canadian, as they got their artillery weapons on the ships at Dunkerque and would not let them be destroyed.

By the War's end there were half-a-million Canadians in Uniform in Britain and the continent from a country with a population of 11 million.

Thanks Joe and lwd, if I'd read your next posts before posting the above, I'd have not bothered.....especially since it really has only a little do with the thread direction and only my reaction to the "on our own" bit!

 

Indeed I believe during the entire period when Sea Lion was a threat there was at least 1 fully trained and equipped Canadian division in England (it may even have been an armored division).

One of the reasons the artillery situation improved so quickly was the US surplussed a lot of 75mm guns and sold them to GB along with a good quantity of ammunition. The guns reached GB in June.

*** I'm a bit guilty of not checking below on this. I suspect the details are already in this thread somewhere ***

 

LWD,


"Indeed I believe during the entire period when Sea Lion was a threat there was at least 1 fully trained and equipped Canadian division in England (it may even have been an armored division)."


I read a little anecdote somewhere, that the Canadian Division landed in France to lend a hand, and the GOC saw straight away the disaster that was unfolding, and it's almost certain result.

The Division had only just completed disembarking, and he gave the order to pack it all up and sailed back to the UK. The Canadians presence in mid 1940 during the BoB was vital. I believe they were soon joined by a second Canadian Division.

Australia had most of the 6th Division there also.

With the 300,000 men from Dunkirk, and the old WW1 vets it was a formidable welcoming committee.

john

 

I believe there was also a fuly equipped Brigade of New Zealanders in the UK that was used as anti-invasion troops as well. In any event, by September, most of the British Army Divisions along the southern coastal shore had already had their wartime TOE returned to a better than 50% level after the horrendous losses at Dunkirk. Through replacement armaments and transport from the British War Industry, or through arms shipments from the US, all of which constituted a quite large percentage of all arms and ammuntion, the Commonwealth forces were armed, locked, loaded and ready. There would have been far more than enough men, tanks and wherewithal to decisively deal with any German invasion lodgements along the South Kent shore. The Germans never stood a ghost of a chance.

 

Be sure to factor in too, an unbroken, defiant, RAF that was stronger in September of 1940 than at the beginning of the Battle of Britain, (unlike the Luftwaffe) also a Royal Navy that was eagerly waiting for the "go order" that would bring them into the channel in overwhelming numbers to utterly and completely savage the German invasion ships, barges and what few paltry, Kriegsmarine warships that were present.

Historically speaking, during all of WW II, the Luftwaffe was never able to prevent the Royal Navy from carrying out any of its avowed missions, either by day, or especially at night.