AHC: Make Sealion very unlikely

Ramontxo

Donor
Project Habakkuk - Wikipedia
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Pykrete must be a wonderfull intoxicating material. What with Mountbatten shooting Admiral King and the Nazis sending thousands of troops floating free down the channel over it....
 
Right, so far we have three suggestions:

1. A massed fleet of giant transport Zeppelins
2. A fleet of tracked submarine transports
3. 1000 landing craft with no naval escort

Have I missed anything? Does anyone have any preferences? If you were Soldat Hans Schmidt in September 1940, which method would you prefer to transport you to England and glorious victory?

Personally I'd go for option 4. Desert, steal a dress and pretend my name was Helga.

:eek:

I knew a Helga once in Hamburg.....this explains a lot

Excuse me for a moment

 
U-boats were deployed at Dunkirk, but it was risky for the U-boats fleet, as that means the limited no. of U-boats available at that time would be confronting the RN in dangerous shallower waters and risked to be attrited to the point that it can't fight the Battle of Atlantic effectively.

The idea of dropping paratroopers in London is absurd. WWII paratroopers has no ability to do low altitude insertion and the RAF radar network is likely to catch the transport planes before they arrived in London. Also, it is dangerous to drop paratroopers in cities as all the buildings present mighty obstacles for the paratroopers to land safely.

The amazing capacity of modern special forces to drop precisely in a small area from a plane flying at a very low altitude is a post WWII development.
good point - also a big reason why the British drop zones at Arnhem weren't closer
 
The problem with aerial mining in the context of Sealion is twofold.
First it takes a LOT of sorties, with the attendant losses (not to the defence so much, but you get a constant trickle of accidents), especially as a mass campaign means a lot of pilots not familiar with the art
Britain has a LOT of ports to close down. It's a bit easier in strategic campaign, as only the larger ports can handle a 10,000t merchant ship, but for SeaLion? A destroyer can put in for fuel and ammo almost anywhere, and the big beasts are safe in Scapa.

And the Brits can certainly do the same to ports in German control. In fact, both sides did lay defensive mindfields in OTL.
 
good point - also a big reason why the British drop zones at Arnhem weren't closer
In fairness, if I had to choose, I guess I'd have to say I'd rather be in a plane over London hoping to avoid the RAF than in an open barge wallowing in the English Channel waiting for the RN to find me.
 

Coulsdon Eagle

Monthly Donor
In fairness, if I had to choose, I guess I'd have to say I'd rather be in a plane over London hoping to avoid the RAF than in an open barge wallowing in the English Channel waiting for the RN to find me.

Well, at least when your barge sinks you have a faint hope of surviving in your lousy life-preserver and being picked up by another vessel (only to be sunk again...)

Chances of a successful parachute exit from a plane going down probably slimmer - and you're not going to be picked up mid-air by another transport!

Makes one wish for the Ostfront.
 
Well, at least when your barge sinks you have a faint hope of surviving in your lousy life-preserver and being picked up by another vessel (only to be sunk again...)

Chances of a successful parachute exit from a plane going down probably slimmer - and you're not going to be picked up mid-air by another transport!

Makes one wish for the Ostfront.
At least the fall will be quicker and less painful than the drowning.

Anyhow I won't have a life preserver unless I'm lucky enough to be in the first wave.
 
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