Could Germany invade England in WWII?

by justinhu87

I understand the Luftwaffe could not destroy the RAF. But could the Luftwaffe provide adequate air cover for German landing boats?

Am I misunderstanding how easily RAF could sink German landing ships?

TheNorthie

Absolutely not, any naval invasion requires many different factors that Germany didn’t have the time for or couldn’t afford. We need to understand that Germany is on the clock to win the war. Every month it is at war with Britain means another month it raises forces from it’s far flung empire. It gives the US a chance to join the war and bring it’s industrial might to beat. And another day it gives the Soviet Union to reform and rearm it’s army.

The three big things you need for any naval invasion : naval superiority, air superiority, and logistics planned for the naval invasion.

Germany’s surface fleet was basically non existent by 1940. While it would later have the Bismarck and Tirpitz later, these would not be enough for guarding an entire invasion force and the supplies for the beachhead. The British Home Fleet on top of other ships near ports that guard the coast line would tear up any invading transports or better yet let Germans land and then cut off all supplies and ships from resupplying the Beachhead. Germany would have to build it’s navy up to even try a landing or at the very least establish naval supremacy in the area. This would take months, years, even a decade to do as ships are expensive and time consuming to make. Not to mention training the crews and sailors for the ships. And the amount of fuel and resources which Germany is lacking at this time. It means for every ton of steel used for a battleship, cruiser, aircraft carrier means it is not used for trucks, half-tracks, or tanks. Every gallon of precious fuel used for these gas guzzling ships is not used for Panzer divisions. And at this point of the war Germany’s naval industry is lacking and would take a long time to produce a good number of ships. Germany simply has no time or resources to spare to invest in a large surface fleet. While they could use subs to help clear out British ships, they couldn’t guard the surface transports from aerial attacks or anti submarine ships. Also any coastal batteries would destroy any of the surface transports with almost no counter battery fire.

Air superiority while a newer requirement, is just as important to any naval invasion. We can see with the Battle of Britain that Germany couldn’t establish air superiority over the isles and channel. This very important as any plane could sink, scout, or harass any ships in the area. Without adequate air cover, the Germans would be caught red handed before they reach the beach. The British would also notice any serious build up near any coast near Northern France. Air superiority would also result in paratroopers being a factor in the invasion as well. However these troops aren’t invincible and would rely on the naval invasion to resupply and reinforce them. The British would be able to cut off these troops and destroy them at their will. Air superiority also is not a constant, you need to control the skies every day. This means fuel wasted every day to patrol the areas with planes and pilots. It is something in the long run Germany can’t afford. The Luftwaffe would just have another Battle of Britain.

But the most important factor for any naval invasion is the logistics and planning. Every naval invasion needs to plan what the end goals is: where they land, what should be taken in the first day, first week, what deep water ports are nearby and can they be secured swiftly, not to mention how to supply the beachhead in the meantime alongside reinforcing it. The distances between the landings are also important as to figure out how much fuel is burned on the trip to and from. You would also need specialized landing craft to land troops and tanks which Germany really didn’t have. You need armor on the beach to help reinforce and infantry, while the infantry clear out anti-tank traps and mines alongside holding ground. But this specialized equipment is all useless if you can’t supply the troops holding the beach. The Allies during the Normandy campaign needed a deep water port to unload large amounts of supplies and men to help reinforce their beachhead and move inland. When Cherbourg was in ruins, the Allies relied on Mulberry Harbors to supply their troops for a long time. Basically ad-hoc harbor thrown together only intended for short use, it soon supplied most of the supplies for the Western Allies for the Battle of Normandy. The Germans would need to either land near a large port or secure one quickly after landing. The British while not in the best of situations after Dunkirk and the Fall of France would be able to defend their land by setting up mines and either cutting off the Germans’ supplies or sabotage their ports. This isn’t even taken into consideration the Home Fleet would have chewed up the invasion fleet by now.

The Germans starving, out of ammo and fuel, and surrounded by a hostile enemy on land, sea, and air would be annihilated if they even stepped a foot on the Home Islands. The Western Allies took over a year to plan their invasion of France and even then they were worried they weren’t ready. Even with all their advantages they were still stalled out at Normandy. Imagine the Germans who were having logistical problems and resource problems trying to invade Britain. Britain was not a great target for them, the Russians however looking weak from their “victory” over small Finland was a better target. As they had all the resources they needed and looked prime to invade over land.

Sources:

Ferris, John, and Evan Mawdsley. The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Volume 1: Fighting the War. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Lavery, Brian. We Shall Fight on the Beaches: Defying Napoleon and Hitler 1805 and 1940. Conway, 2009.

thefourthmaninaboat

I'm going to link you to the relevant section of my profile. The answers linked there should demonstrate that the main challenge facing any German invasion of Britain was the Royal Navy. Neither the Kriegsmarine nor the Luftwaffe were in any position to defeat it, and any invasion was impossible as long as the RN controlled the English Channel.