german invasion

If the Germans led a full fledge invasion of the UK, the nation would of fell indefinatly. Although this depends on what time of the war you are speaking of, the beginning, middle, or end would effect the answer.

Then I will stick with my previous answer, "If the Germans led a full fledge invasion of the UK, the nation would have fell indefinatly."

I voted no. Reasons stated by Sparten, and others. It just wasn't possible, especially with Hitler in charge of it.

I assume we're taking about 'Sealion' taking place in late summer / early fall of 1940.  The German navy, already quite small, had been heavily damaged in the spring 1940 operations in Norway.  The Germans were depending on 'converted' river barges as their 'landing craft'.  Both the army and navy agreed that the Luftwaffe needed to establish complete air superiority over the English Channel and the landing areas for the operation to have any chance, which the Luftwaffe not only failed to do but wasn't really ever that close to achieving.  No doubt the RAF Fighter Command forces were hard pressed in the southeast during the Battle of Britain.  However, they still had plenty of 'reserves' outside of the immediate target areas.  The key factor was that what the German navy had left to operate with couldn't possibly 'protect' the landing forces from the Royal Navy.  That's why the Germans needed uncontested air superiority, so that the Luftwaffe could attack the RN when it arrived to take out the German landing forces.  Further, as the aerial portion of the Battle of Britain dragged on through the summer, the British land forces were being re-equipped and strengthened.  That was another key factor, the Germans probably lost any slim chance they might have had to successfully land in Britain when they 'allowed' the British forces to be evacuated from Dunkirk.  Although those troops lost essentially all of their equipment, it was easier to find new or surplus equipment to re-equip them than it would have been to raise and train new units from scratch.  So while the evacuated forces would not have been an effective fighting force in the immediate wake of having been evacuated, given that the Germans were not then prepared for an immediate assault on Britain the evacuated forces were reformed and re-equipped and were available to defend against a possible landing several months later.

Edited by deadkenny - 31-Oct-2007 at 13:31

I voted no because in the sixties, the BBC got together many surviving WW2 Generals and Admirals both British and German, to play a "war game" along these lines. The play went loosely  that the Luftwaffe managed to drive the RAF away from the South coast  for long enough to launch the invasion.  The first German wave landed  against stiff British opposition, but the Royal Navy steamed down from Scapa Floe and, despite heavy losses, creamed  the subsequent German invasion waves and more importantly, their transports.  The first wave was left holding their beach-heads, but the Germans were no longer capable of re-supplying them within any significant time frame.  Both sides agreed that eventually they'd be forced to surrender.
Result: the invasion as envisaged by the Germans in 1940 would have failed, although at a huge cost to the Royal Navy Home Fleet.

thanks for the responses, i was of a frame of mind it would have failed too.

Hmm, couldn't vote.  Challenger- could you post a link or something with regards to that wargame, that sounds just fascinating.  I would love to know who the respective generals were for the brits and germans.  It would be interesting if the generals in question were the best from their respective countries or somewhere in between; I speculate because a lot of the best german generals were already dead.

Now if the Luftwaffe was able to eliminate the RAF, which was a possibility (perhaps small but still possible) if the Luftwaffe had not been diverted to pointless terror bombing of civilians in london and elsewhere, then I think the invasion has a small chance of success.  Now if the 300,000 allied troops at Dunkirk had not "gotten away" then I would say the invasion has a GOOD chance of success.  With the RAF out of the picture and the british defences with, in essence, no troops to man them... 

I think you underestimate the germans.  If they can land, remembering the british have not had time to build any kind of ground defence or train troops to man it, I see no reason why they can't move inland.  With air superiority they can get supplies to the beachhead.

Originally posted by erkut İt would be successful, if they hadn't declare war to USSR.

Originally posted by erkut İt would be successful, if they hadn't declare war to USSR.