Why the Germans Didn't Invade Britain in WW2

Nazi Germany's decision not to invade England, despite its initial plans and the intense air battles of the Battle of Britain, can be attributed to several key factors. Firstly, the Royal Navy's dominance in the English Channel posed a significant obstacle for any amphibious invasion. The risk of losing a large portion of the German army during such an operation was deemed too high.
Additionally, the failure to gain air superiority over Britain after the Battle of Britain meant that the Luftwaffe couldn't guarantee the necessary air cover for a successful invasion. The British RAF's resilience and the development of radar technology played crucial roles in preventing German air superiority.
Furthermore, Adolf Hitler's attention shifted towards the East, particularly the invasion of the Soviet Union, which diverted resources and manpower away from a potential invasion of England. Ultimately, the logistical challenges, combined with the failure to establish air superiority and shifting strategic priorities, dissuaded Nazi Germany from attempting a land invasion of England.

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[gumdeo]

They couldn't do it (in either world war).

[tekha]

I think it’s safe to say that the lack of air superiority was the reason for the Royal Navy dominance in the Channel.

Had Luftwaffe been able to wipe out RAF they might have stood a chance on invading the isle, even if they had to fight Royal Navy.

[rodneysmith]

It took us years, with the largest industrial plant in the world, to mount a cross-channel invasion. The Germans never really had the wherewithal.

[nigelgarrett]

Where was the capacity to carry an army and its supplies? And if someone is going to say barges, apart from the difficulty of getting barges to cross in bad weather, what were those barges doing before they were assembled? Where did they come from?

[scotttracy]

The allies in 1944 had Pluto (pipeline under the ocean) to pump gasoline to the srmies in Normandy.

Germans have had to bring their gasoline with them to feed their hungry tanks

[bigsarge]

Operation Sealion is definitely fascinating.

[martonpapp]

So let's assume that in some miracle of a way the Nazis manage to gain some superiority in the air, albeit anything like that would only have been temporarily, but let's say that the Germans have achieved that. In addition, their fleet doesn't suffer any or only light losses in the conquest of Norway and in case a German invasion their destroyers manage to mine the entrances to the channel and hold them off a bit with some of their capitals ships from the Scharnhorst class and Bismarck class, that had been completed a year ahead of schedule for some reason like the construction started earlier or whatever, the reason is not what's important. So in this case theoretically, would Hitler and the high command have given a green light to the situation had such circumstances been a thing?

[coling]

Germany was afraid of the Home Guard, to quote Lance-Corporal Jones "they don't like it up em!" ...

[gibraltersteamboatco]

👍 Thanks. BZ 25, 000 germ an soldiers to occupy the Channel Islands, population 66, 000.They would have had to start cloning Hans to occupy Britain.

[luisviquez]

Because the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy would have destroyed the invasion force

[robertbarrett]

Resilience of Polish & Czech pilots & their contribution to training of RAF pilots . Free French pilots had come over .

[Squeee]

I do believe that an invasion would've been possible if the Germans had focused more on fighter production and didn't bomb the cities but only the airfields and early warning radar stations to gain air superiority.

The royal navy never was a big threat to such an invasion because the Germans had quite potent bombers like the JU 88 that are kind of easy to use to hit big ships with large armor piercing bombs (we're talking about 1.6 and 2 metric ton bombs that would cut through battleship armor like butter from the top) in dive bomber attacks while the smaller ships like light cruisers and destroyers could be dealt with by quick and nimble fighter bombers like the FW190. Most importantly though the channel is a choke point that is easy to control from the air and ships couldn't pass undetected under such circumstances.

All this would've been only possible under the premise of having air superiority of course. Operation Sea Lion is a nice thought experiment but very unrealistic because the German high command wasn't very straight thinking most of the time with some people being straight up incompetent, ignoring the pleas of very experienced pilots and commanders to change doctrine.

[Camilla_Kudrin]

Germany VS Britain: a victory is possible 😀
Germany VS USSR: 💀💀💀

[philbachmann]

Logistics aside, Britain would have been ungovernable in my opinion.
Even with victories in the East and the decimation of Warsaw eventually because of NS occupation policies Poland would prove very difficult to govern long term.
Wars of Annihilation and brutal occupation can't be sustained, unless you kill everyone, which for the Nazis may have been given consideration. 🙏🇦🇺

[sianphillips]

It was because the strength of our navy and because the uk wasn't connected to Europe so it's classed as "an island country"

[gordonmcintosh]

Britain had become sufficiently socialist and did not pose an ideological threat to German socialism.

[adventussaxonum]

Any attempted invasion may have shortened the war, but not in the way that the Wehraboos on here think. 😅

[santosrobles]

I think if it would of gone all in in the 1st phase i think it could of succeded before THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 🇺🇸 got envolved