the Sea Mammal that wasn't quite

[General_Finley]

So it is agreed upon by most (if not all) that the Sea Lion as it was planned would have been a failure, I agree, but recently I was watching a program in which it stated that a German general proposed that immediately after the allies had evacuated Dunkirk, Hitler not finish conquering France but instead invade Britain amid the chaos. I still am under the impression that this would have been a failure, but I wanted to know how differently the war would have played out had this not quite sea lion actually taken place.
Would it have been more successful? With Germany preoccupied trying to invade Britain would they have still invaded the Soviet Union? Would the Soviets have helped? What happens in the unconquered portions of Frances as a large amount of the German army fights else where? How much sooner does Nazi Germany loose?

[frieza]

the operation could have worked depending on if the dunkirk was attack before the the allies escape and if the german airforce could take out the navy other the whole operation is a sham without paratroopers obviously. the weary allied troops wouldnt be able fight back as easierly then further in the war. the russian might join a alliance with german but its doubtfull and with britain taken the us have no spot to launch an offensive of their own if they decide to join.

[CalBear]

The base problem remains the same. The RN controls the Channel, the RAF controls the air over the Channel, or at least denies control to the Luftwaffe (one reason there were so few RAF aircraft in France relative to total inventory is that Fighter and Bomber Command withheld most of the force to defend Great Britain).

Hitler still lacks any reasonable sort of landing vessels, and the French are still holding almost all of France along the Channel (it is sometimes forgotten that AFTER Dunkirk the British still had a significant force in Normandy fighting with French units there. Brook (née Lord Alanbrooke) and a number of troops actually reinforced this British force after drying off from their experience at Dunkirk. This means the Germans also lack anywhere to even build up to mount an assault.

There is also the simple fact that conducting even a small, say two divisions, assault requires a good deal of logistical preparation. A small assault was going to fail rather spectacularly, and there was never any chance of conducting a full sized attack with even a even chance of success.

[mailinutile2]

the operation would have been a failure (there's something called Royal Navy) AND the result in france would have been at risk of being compromised.
do not forget that the bulk the frenche forces was fundamentally intact and that the impact was chiefly a psychological one: a defeat could turn the tables here

[Monty Burns]

In the aftermath with full knowledge of the war, I'd say it might be possible that an invasion could have worked, if

1. the British expeditionary corps were annihilated in Dunkirk
2. all preparations for an invasion were ready, which includes troops, supplies, air cover, harbours, air defence of installations, training, landing craft etc.
3. the invasion comes as a surprise - which kind of contradicts the previous assumption of preparation by the Germans
4. the Germans are confident enough to defeat France with an invasion going on at the same time - given the luck the Germans had in France this is actually borderline ASB.

Considering the first point, I already read several posts in this forum that this might indeed be significantly more difficult than it seems.

The second point might be done, yet would require a lot of money and labour which would lack in other fields - unless you had a POD years before that to cover that expenses, say research on landing craft done already under the Weimar republic, a "Rommel's Barbarossa"-like cooperation between the Axis even before the war so that the Italians can enter early and actually pose a threat, a German Marine Korps established under the Kaiser for exactly these purposes, a lesser impact of the Great Depression and hence an overall better economic situation...

Nevertheless, it would be to great a gamble to plan in invasion beforehand. Thus, essentially, after Dunkirk Hitler has to decide "invasion now". Even if the Germans were fully prepared for an invasion of Britain sometimes later, that wouldn't work.

[DireSituation]

Goddamn, Sea Lion is Sea Lion, stop abridging it.

[AlanJWhite]

CS Forester of Hornblower fame was a war correspondent during WW2
and also wrote a series of "docudrama" books and short stories on naval life
(The best of which is "The Ship")

He published "If Hitler had Invaded England" in collection called "Gold From Crete"
(which also includes several other pure naval vignettes)

The Point of Departure for IHHIE is a bad assessment of British morale made by a Panzer general on the beach at Dunkirk
leading Hitler to plan for a mid summer rather than a mid autumn invasion