Would Britain's army have been able to drive off Napoleon's army?

I know I probably should have put this in ASB, and if Calbear or another mod thinks it should go there, then I will understand but let's say for whatever reason Nappy's army gets a foothold on Britain, would The UK's 615,000 army if Wikipedia isn't lying been able to hold them down in southern England and Wales? In my personal opinion, I see guerrilla harassment from those in Southern England and Wales and the British manage to stop France from getting into Scotland. I can see the prime minister at the time escaping to Canada to continue the fight ala what I thought Winston might do if...gulp that unmentionable
operation was carried out in WW2..
 
Unless the French gain complete naval superiority and are able to send ships to Britain with impunity their problem wont be supply (although thats cause for concern) but rather manpower. The British on the other hand could afford to grind the French invasion force down while using the local population to reinforce themselves.

And if the French do have naval superiority or parity... well thats interesting. I dont think continuing the fight from Canada is much of an option tho.
 

Eurofed

Banned
Canada in 1805-12 is but a pale shadow of what it shall be in 1940, and the USA is harboring strong irredentist ambitions on it at the time. If the British Isles fall to Napoleon, the Americans shall most certainly invade and annex Canada successfully under some pretext, quite likely even the British West Indies (as well as Cuba and Texas if Spain is a British ally at the time), and that's the end of British North America.
 
If the French gain naval superiority I think invading Britain would be a whole lot easier than OTL's invasion of Russia (and by that I mean, actually winnable...) Nappy doesn't have to get total victory over the Brits, he just has to put on enough pain to knock them out of the fight, something that probably leads to some bad dominoes for the UK in that Ireland is probably gone, Scotland might be going with them, and, hell... the whole Empire is at risk with Canada being looked at by a greedy USA and their status and stature in India falling into doubt.
 

Eurofed

Banned
If the French gain naval superiority I think invading Britain would be a whole lot easier than OTL's invasion of Russia (and by that I mean, actually winnable...) Nappy doesn't have to get total victory over the Brits, he just has to put on enough pain to knock them out of the fight, something that probably leads to some bad dominoes for the UK in that Ireland is probably gone, Scotland might be going with them, and, hell... the whole Empire is at risk with Canada being looked at by a greedy USA and their status and stature in India falling into doubt.

Exactly. This may easily mean the end of the British Empire, if not Britain (well, they would in all likelihood keep Australia in lack of a viable alternative).
 
If the French gain naval superiority I think invading Britain would be a whole lot easier than OTL's invasion of Russia (and by that I mean, actually winnable...) Nappy doesn't have to get total victory over the Brits, he just has to put on enough pain to knock them out of the fight, something that probably leads to some bad dominoes for the UK in that Ireland is probably gone, Scotland might be going with them, and, hell... the whole Empire is at risk with Canada being looked at by a greedy USA and their status and stature in India falling into doubt.

Pretty much this, except Scotland isn't going anywhere by this point.
 
I don't see the French being able to pull it off without dominance at sea, which is unlikely. Perhaps more likely would be a limited French force slipping through and invading Ireland to stir up trouble there, that could certainly wound Britain. And the French have definitely tried that in the past.
 
Naval Superiority

The British fleet, by 1814, was worn out! Also by that time, the French had been building vessels on a regular basis, and actually could have put more viable ships to sea than the brits could.
The problem was that the Frenchies did not have the trained experienced reserve of manpower necessary to subdue the Brits. Most of the trained Marines and Seamen perished in the snows of Russia! Napoleon drafted them into the infantry, expecting control of the seas by denying the Brits a continental port/market.
 

67th Tigers

Banned

Southern District (i.e. Kent and Sussex) had three Army Corps as the British defined them at the time under General D. Dundas, Lt Gen Francis Dundas and Lt Gen George Don manning this line.

Nearby there is another Corps under Lt Gen HRH The Duke of Cambridge in Surrey, another at London under Lt Gen Harry Burrard (a large one with 3 rather than 2 divisions), and in Hampshire there is a Corps under Lt Gen HRH The Duke of Cumberland. There are of course more units further north*, but they're not immediately available.

Napoleon faces six Corps with his six, and that assumes he gets them all ashore before Dundas (who is overall commander) brings his forces down on the beachheads. Remember because of the telegraph system the command post at Edinburgh knows Napoleon has landed within the hour.



* Lt Gen Sir Hugh Dalrymple's Corps in Northumberland, Lt Gen Richard Vyse's Corps at York, Gen The Earl of Moira's Corps in Scotland, Lt Gen Banastare Tarleton's Division on the River Severn and a few other brigades scattered around at posts.
 
If the British had lost sea power (loosing Trafalguer or smilar) the histeria in England would have reached even higher levels than it did in OTL (which given they hung a monkey because they thought it was a Frenchman seems amazing).

I can see the militia's being more popular with a much larger volenteer element.

As for flight to Canada, not going to happen, George III would not allow it. I can see a seige of Edinburgh castle if things turned out really badly for the English (Georgie Porgie forced to diet due to lack of food - terrible thought!).
 

67th Tigers

Banned
The reserve seat of government was at Weedon Bec, Northants. In the event of a catastrophic defeat of the Southern Army the government would evacuate London via the Grand Union Canal to Weedon and link up with the Northern Army.
 
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