Invasion: Operation Sea Lion 1940

It's the summer of 1940 and the Nazis have crossed the English Channel to invade Britain. They advance North from the South coast and great swathes of Southern England come under German control. Fiction, of course, but an invasion of Britain was planned by Hitler to take place in the summer of 1940 - how far would the Germans have been able to advance? Would they have been successful? The Battle of Britain was launched in July 1940, first against fighter airfields, and later, from 1 September against London. On 16 July Hitler issued Fuhrer Directive No. 16 for preparations for a landing operation against England. Operation Sealion (as the landing in England was called) was then postponed on 17 September and cancelled on 12 October. This book explores the alternative - that Sealion began as planned on 21 September. Invasion: Operation Sealion follows the historical course of events up to 1 September, including the planning in Britain and Germany, and the aerial war. The British strategy for defending England is that actually adopted by General Alan Brooke when appointed to Southern Command on 26 June. In the second part of the book, Martin Marx Evans provides a fictional account of the invasion. The fictional account is based on detailed study of German geological and geographical analysis of the English terrain and the maps and handbook sthat were published to convey this data to their commanders in the field. It is also founded on the Defence of Britain Project - a massive survey of 20th century installations such as pill-boxes, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters and anti-tank ditches, whilst the behaviour of German troops is firmly based on actual events in Europe earlier in 1940.

Martin Marix Evans & Angus McGeoch
Hardcover 280 pages 2004