As we all know, the Kaiserreich had concocted a plan to launch an invasion of the Union of Britain during the Second Weltkrieg. However, that plan never reached fruition and was shelved.

My question is what if Operation Sealion had gone ahead as planned? Would it have been as successful as the Schlieffen Plan? Would it have been a catastrophe as some of the Junkers had asserted? What if?
 
Would have been a disaster. Utterly.

The Royal Navy barely managed the Restoration at full strength, and the Kaiser's navy had been decimated during the 1940-41 war with Japan - plus the loss of resources from Indochina and Malaya seriously hurt the German war effort when the Weltkrieg kicked off in '41. Add to that their lack of meaningful developments in carrier technology...
 

Deleted member 97083

Why would the Kaiser launch Operation Seelöwe when he knew that the Union State of America and the Dominion of Canada would do it for him? It made much more sense for the Canadians to start a domestic, pro-monarchist uprising in England, from which the Entente and Mitteleuropa alliances could send expeditionary forces, rather than attempt a traditional invasion.

Operation Seelöwe would have antagonized the British population, and they might have even accepted their totalist government if they thought "the Hun" was going to conquer them. Subversion and proxy war was a much more effective tactic, just as in the 1970s operations in the Ottoman Empire.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
It would have worked! The barges would have made it across, the Channel is just a wide river after all, and they would have won. Air superiority, naval superiority? Pah, who needs that in the face of Prussian military might on land?
 
It might have led to quite a different Britain. The Restoration saw democratic government returned to Britain, and the return of the Isles into the new Imperial Commonwealth post-war. Now granted, Canada remains the senior partner in the Commonwealth, but post-war reconstruction aid let Britain become an economic and industrial powerhouse particularly in terms of consumer electronics - hell, British computer and InterVid* technology is the equal of anything produced in the Pacific States of America. A German invasion might have seen a pro-German puppet regime installed, and Britain would have been stuck as a satellite of Germany rather than a partner in a military and economic alliance that's still one of the world's Great Powers. Especially since the rapprochement and alliance with the Asia-Pacific Co-Prosperity Sphere** - between them, they've provided a sizeable block on the Tsar's ambitions in various parts of the world.

* InterVid=Interactive Video (Video Game)
** An alliance of Japan, the Republic of China, the Pacific States of America, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya, Indochina, Thailand and Burma.
 
It would have worked! The barges would have made it across, the Channel is just a wide river after all, and they would have won. Air superiority, naval superiority? Pah, who needs that in the face of Prussian military might on land?

Indeed it has been claimed that had the experimental Fallschirmjäger Regiment landed in Kent (assuming it survived the attention of the RFC fighter Regiments) then the shock would very likely have brought the Totalist regime to the negotiation table and possibly the London Militia out on the streets to depose them (to be fair that's what pretty much happened when the CEF disembarked in Liverpool with the 'Child Queen Elizabeth').

Although it has to be noted that with the majority of the manoeuvre units of the Crack Republic Guard Division was based just inland of Broadstairs in Kent with 200 light tanks ready to repel such an invasion (not to mention the other regular and Militia units) - so had the Government 'not' collapsed then I don't think much of the German Paratroopers chances!

Personally I just wish that the Kaiser and his Generals as well as the MittleEuropeans had been looking east with the same level of 'angst' rather than trying to resolve the British and Spanish problems (and focusing so much effort on rebuilding their decimated Navy rather than completing the Bismarck Line of fortifications in modern day Poland) and we might have been saved from turning central Europe into an armed camp when the Russian Empire made its move swallowing up most of Eastern Europe for 30 years.
 
Personally I just wish that the Kaiser and his Generals as well as the MittleEuropeans had been looking east with the same level of 'angst' rather than trying to resolve the British and Spanish problems (and focusing so much effort on rebuilding their decimated Navy rather than completing the Bismarck Line of fortifications in modern day Poland) and we might have been saved from turning central Europe into an armed camp when the Russian Empire made its move swallowing up most of Eastern Europe for 30 years.

Agreed. The West resolved itself about as well as anyone could have asked for, with the Restoration in Britain and its rebuilding post-war, plus the fall of Communard France. The East, on the other hand... Tsar Wrangel chose his moment with great care and Russia managed to reap the rewards for three decades.

Which also had major consequences for elsewhere in the world. It was Russian aid that kept the Western Chinese regime afloat until the reunification with the Republic, and it's rumoured that they had training camps for the 'Screaming Eagle' terrorists who plagued the Union State during the early 1960s...
 
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