Hey, my first Sealion TL!
Wait a minute...
Sealion!!!!!!!
Hello. My name is Gosing. You have invoked the name of Sealion. Prepare to die (not really).
Firstly, you say that the first wave of German troops invading Britain were paratroopers. There are a couple of things about that, starting with the fact that Speer has put what was never anything more than a low-level plan ahead of helping stamp out the Allied position on Crete. Without the paratroopers that in OTL landed at Crete, the Axis would lose, and if they were at Crete, they wouldn't have any paratroopers for Sealion. In addition to the obvious fact that the Allies will have a Hell of a better position in the Mediterranean, it would probaly give Mussolini (sp.?) a bit to think about. There's also the lack of experience in the Norway and Denmark to think about. And the fact that
Secondly, I would rather like to hear
what the Germans are coming in. The OTL plans for Sealion called for Rhine river barges-which, BTW, in addition to being vulnerable to the weather and larger boats (which could sink them just by
passing them) are numerous enough only for 10 divisions, which also happen to have to be innfantry, due to their inability to transfer tanks or heavy artillery. Even with every single soldier in Dunkirk killed or captured, 10 divisions cannot hope to overcome the Home Guard. The scary thing is, that would probably be their best transports, and any significant expansion of the fleet since when I'm assuming he decided to go for Sealion (mid-1940) would probably explode before it could reach harbor.
An explanation of why the British didn't use poison gas against the beach heads would also be appreciated.
Thirdly, there is also the queston of supply. Three weeks of heavy fighting is a long time, and an army would need food water (which could conceivably come from local sources) and ammunition (which couldn't). The very things that the invasion force would need to even break out of the initial beach head...were supposed to come on the same river barges that were supposed to bring the troops. Weather is a funny thing, and a couple of days after the sunny Day Zero, the resupply could easily be destroyed by a thunderstorm. This also leaves out the slight possibility that some of the barges were destroyed or damaged in the invasion, and could probably be destroyed in an instant by the RN.
Ah, the Royal Navy. As Krall once succinctly said:
Let me tell you about Britain before we lost our empire; we had a big navy. No, seriously, it was huge. It was our 'thing'. Grass grows, birds fly, the Sun shines and Britain maintained its naval supremacy over vast areas of the world's ocean.
It is worth noting that a large amount of the whole "starving them out" strategy in OTL came from
submarines attacking civilian shipping. The time for a buildup of the Kriegsmarine was in the early 30s, but that chance was passed up for the Luftwaffe expansion-rather sensibly, since they knew they couldn't compete with the British. It is also worth noting that until April 1939 the Germans by international agreement could only have 35% of the tonnage of the RN, and in reality had
nowhere near that amount. While the lack of a Norweigan Campaign halps somewhat, there is also the fact that Sweden would be far less dependant on Germany, and thus Germany would probably have some trouble getting iron ore for her industries including (drumroll).....Shipbuilding! I personally have my doubts that Norway and Denmark could remain neutral, but either way, the Kriegsmarine has a camel with a needle in a sandstorm's chance of gaining the decisive naval victory in the channel necessary to launch an invasion or resupply it. Really, there is just no way to get around that.
Last but not least is the air situation. To launch an invasion, air superiority is needed. Full air superiority. The whole thing is kinda overshadowed by the naval factors, but there is still the fact that the RAF has home-field advantage, and that Britain consistently outbuilt Germany in aerial matters. Then there's the northern reserve, which unless Speer pulls a new brand of bomber from his butt is
totally out of the German range, and could easily send bombers south to wreak havoc upon the Germans below-or the manna-bearers above.
Oh, and one more thing-invading Britain with 1941 Germany is a
really big thing. Unless its some kind of diversion or something, it is going to eat up a
lot of German military capacities. This leaves the question of exactly what Stalin is doing while the eastern German garrisons are systematically stripped to be sent to the slaughter in the West...
Great TL otherwise (no, I'm serious).