Can Napoleon invade Britain via hot air balloon

Saphroneth

Banned
Alternatively, just fill the Channel with rubble.

It is only 30 km wide x 30 m deep on average. Making a reasonable causeway across requires only a realistic amount of rubble.

Hey, for only twice the amount of rubble, you could even polderize a whole section of Channel! Makes it easier to drag artillery (and horses) across.

You could even use the before-mentioned trebuchet to throw these stones into place. Let the perfidious Albion try to defend against this!

A realistic amount of rubble meaning that, for a 10 m wide causeway, you need...
9 million cumecs. In other words, for a perfectly smooth-sided causeway, you need approx. the volume of concrete in the Hoover dam per 2.5 metres wide.
Angle of repose for rubble is, what, 30 degrees...
Call it a "down payment" of about 10 million cumecs as the underwater sloping sides, plus 1 million cumec per metre of width.

This is actually surprisingly doable (relatively speaking), so long as you ignore little things like weather, tides or waves. It's like a photonegative Suez.
 
When te balloons were already devising the white cliffs of Dover...the wind would push them towards the Frisian Islands, creating some bizarre ideas 140 years latter.
 
Dear idontlikesand,

Thank you for this suggestion. It has made me laugh to the extent my colleagues at work are now worrying about my sanity.

More so than before anyway.

I need not point out the shortfalls in your ideas, as others have done so, however, this could make a perfectly good ASB Scenario.

At least it seems to be an original idea though.

d'aww thanks:p
 
It may also be possible to design balloons that are big enough to carry ships. The biggest ships in the french navy could be tied to balloons and then carried off to London from where their height would be lowered so they would be low enough to pulverize the major sights in London ie, Buckingham Palace, Westminster etc. Surely Britain would surrender after the destruction of her capital. I suspect this is actually plausible. It just requires gigantic baloons.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
It may also be possible to design balloons that are big enough to carry ships. The biggest ships in the french navy could be tied to balloons and then carried off to London from where their height would be lowered so they would be low enough to pulverize the major sights in London ie, Buckingham Palace, Westminster etc. Surely Britain would surrender after the destruction of her capital. I suspect this is actually plausible. It just requires gigantic baloons.

"Air ship".
That is all.


Incidentally, the Temeraire series is becoming more relevant to this topic all the time..
 
hell he might just launch the invasion with the fleet tied to balloons and simply bypass the entire royal navy. Supplies could also be delivered this way. The RN would be made completely irrelevant.
 
hell he might just launch the invasion with the fleet tied to balloons and simply bypass the entire royal navy. Supplies could also be delivered this way. The RN would be made completely irrelevant.

Haha, imagine those stiff necked Royal Navy boys waving their fists in impotent anger at the gently floating ships far above their heads!

Better luck next time sailors!
 
Haha, imagine those stiff necked Royal Navy boys waving their fists in impotent anger at the gently floating ships far above their heads!

Better luck next time sailors!
Of course, they do wonder why the entire French navy is heading across the Skaggerak into continental Scandinavia, as the winds changed direction. ....:p
 
Of course, they do wonder why the entire French navy is heading across the Skaggerak into continental Scandinavia, as the winds changed direction. ....:p

I can just see Napoleon's forehead vein throbbing.

"What do you mean Scandinavia? What do you mean the wind changed?"

"Well, can the boys swim??"

...

"Oh wait, this was the balloon fleet"

"...crap..."
 
Actually the planned invasion force was 200,00 men not 100k as I earlier said. Obviously Napoleon would bring along cavalry and artillery. The hot air ballons also present the option of shelling British forces and cities from the sky.

Then they are lost - for they have reasoned without thought of the mighty Congreve Rocket system.

Boney has sent his men slowly floating across the sky only to witness their fragile balloons shredded by massed batteries of this mighty weapon and said men, cannon and horse dashed upon the unyielding earth below.

What was he thinking?
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Then they are lost - for they have reasoned without thought of the mighty Congreve Rocket system.

Boney has sent his men slowly floating across the sky only to witness their fragile balloons shredded by massed batteries of this mighty weapon and said men, cannon and horse dashed upon the unyielding earth below.

What was he thinking?
You know, your mention of "men, cannon and horse" made me realize.
He was playing Risk!
He traded in three cards and got a load of troops, and then decided to roll the dice to attack Great Britain...
 
Then they are lost - for they have reasoned without thought of the mighty Congreve Rocket system.

Boney has sent his men slowly floating across the sky only to witness their fragile balloons shredded by massed batteries of this mighty weapon and said men, cannon and horse dashed upon the unyielding earth below.

What was he thinking?

the rockets weren't very accurate bro. trust me I've tried them in total war and they were shit.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
the rockets weren't very accurate bro. trust me I've tried them in total war and they were shit.

To be fair, if the French were playing by Total War rules, they'd have loaded their entire army onto a single Dhow and landed in Britain before the British could react.
 
To be fair, if the French were playing by Total War rules, they'd have loaded their entire army onto a single Dhow and landed in Britain before the British could react.

Gotta love the Total War take on naval combat. By Rome 2, your men can simply become boats and zoom past any opposition. :D
 
Gotta love the Total War take on naval combat. By Rome 2, your men can simply become boats and zoom past any opposition. :D

their take on diplomacy is even more wonderful. Your oldest trading partners will declare war on you just because you have a lot of territory and will reject peace even if you offer them all of Italy.
 
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