Not too long ago I was talking with a friend of mine, who has a degree in history, and he seemed to believe a German invasion of Britain was absolutely unfeasible at any stage of the war. I believe his main arguments were that we (we're English) had air superiority and that the Germans would be slaughtered wherever they landed, (indeed he said the paratroopers would be attacked by farmers with pitchforks as they landed in the fields), not just the beaches, which I assume would be the main points of assault (the beaches, that is), where they'd be cut down by machine guns. I'm sure a lot of the nuances of his points were lost on me in my inebriated state, but it's something that's had me thinking ever since.
Which led to another question popping into my head recently - what is a modern example of an island nation being successfully occupied? Cursory research suggests it was Grenada. But are there any modern examples of island nations being overtaken? And if not, when was the last?
Which leads me to ask a third question: are island nations inherently far easier to defend? Obviously they are to some degree, I mean are they much, much easier to defend?
I don't have much of an education in history beyond what I've read myself, but I'd much appreciate an answer to any of these 2 and a half questions. I'd particularly like an answer to the first question though (regarding a German invasion of Britain).
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond!
The German plan to invade Britain was indeed Operation Sea Lion. One of its prerequisites was to defeat the RAF so that the Luftwaffe could support the invasion (and so that the German transport craft wouldn't be attacked from the air). The RAF won the Battle of Britain and was still in existence throughout 1940, causing Sea Lion to be repeatedly delayed and then cancelled. The plan called for seaborne troops to be ferried ashore mostly by river barges--a precarious proposition at best. Given the potential opposition of the RAF and the Royal Navy (which the German Kriegsmarine couldn't hope to match), the possibility of getting troops ashore was there but resupply would have been quite dubious. Parachute landings could have been made, but German transport aviation took a sizable hit during the invasion of the Low Countries and the Battle of France and hadn't recovered by the summer of 1940, resulting in restrictions on the number of potential paratroop drops. The British Army had lost much of its equipment in France, but the Germans would have had a very hard time of bringing their own equipment across and an even harder time bringing supplies (ammunition, food, fuel) in the following days. A wargame after WWII simulated Sea Lion and even with tilting the game in favor of the Germans (relative to reality) the Germans were handily defeated.
are island nations inherently far easier to defend?
In the context of WWII, making an amphibious invasion was a difficult proposition. Specialized landing craft had to be invented and built, doctrine had to be hammered out, and the logistics were a nightmare. Undertaking such a task in the face of an enemy air force was seen as incredibly risky if not suicidal. Doing so in the face of enemy naval superiority (such as the Royal Navy enjoyed over their German counterparts) was also a huge risk. Getting ashore was one thing--and could be done against enemy air and naval forces--but supplying those troops with the supplies and support to be able to advance was another thing entirely. Getting heavy equipment (tanks, artillery, construction equipment for airfields and the like) ashore was difficult at best, and then supplying these assets with literally hundreds of tons of ammunition and fuel was similarly arduous. So being on an island with an existing air and naval threat was a decided advantage for the defender.
Now, I don't know if your friend was correct about slaughtering the enemy the instant they came ashore, but the British were capable of making any invasion attempt an extremely risky operation and they were determined to resist to the best of their ability. Farmers did corral downed German airmen with pitchforks and shotguns, but that would have been suicide against paratroopers. However, any landed paratroopers would have needed support from regular formations or they would have just been isolated and destroyed (and we can see this in a number of costly Allied airborne assaults). That said, your friend was on the right track: Sea Lion was highly unlikely to succeed.