WW1 SEALION challenge

Imagine France falls, Germany manages to keep the whole of HSF and knocks out Battle Cruiser squadrom and 5th Battle sqadron at Jutland and they managed to acquire much of the French fleet could Germany have invaded Britain circa 1917?
 
Cue the flaming! He mentioned the unspeakable seamammal!

Even if the Kriegsmarine can beat the Royal Navy, the biggest issue in WWII was the lack of German landing craft. The German fleet was not designed with convoying troops in mind.
 

MrP

Banned
I think it'd be a bit tricky. We've a few examples from the Great War of Entente naval assaults, and they didn't go too well. Zeebrugge is well-known, I am pretty sure I recall an Indian Army attempt ('14? '15?) to land on an African coastline in ship's boats, which was just shot up by the Germans, and there's the proposed '17 (?) operation to turn the German flank by assaulting the beaches. So you either need experimental landing craft or expendable assault ships or to thoroughly prepare the area with naval gunfire or to land on an undefended coastline. The last is the easiest, but there the defenders have the advantage of interior lines, being able to dispatch troops by rail to wherever is invaded. Really, I'd have to say it's not at all likely, but it'd certainly make an interesting read!
 
I don't think so; at that point Britain would have been fighting for three years, so they would be in no shape to continue the war even if there is no invasion by the Germans. They would surrender as soon as France did.

That leaves aside the plausibility of a French collapse in 1917. After 1914, only massive amounts of resources and new tactics would be sufficient to cause a French collapse, something on the scale of OTL's Spring Offensive in 1918. In 1917, the Germans still had the Eastern Front to worry about, which nixes that idea.

Also, in 1917, the only major amphibious operation to date that approached the scale of this operation was Gallipoli, and that was a bloody failure. If the Germans have naval superiority, they can starve Britain out without resorting to a bloody and uncertain invasion.
 
It's even more impossible then in WW2.

I wouldn't go that far; unlike Nazi Germany, the Kaiserreich has a substantial navy. Granted, Germany getting naval superiority would require near-ASB levels of luck, and even if Germany can control the Channel there are a lot of other problems with an invasion, but it's still more doable than it was in World War II where absolute British naval supremacy was never in doubt.
 

mowque

Banned
Tough, on a lot of levels.

I mean, first you have to get there. (no small task but doable, assuming great German luck). Ok, let's say the Kaiser wins the lottery and manages to get his troops ashore.

Now what? This is WW1, so roll out the trenches, quick firing artillery, machine guns, and gas. Not the stuff you want for a quick moving invasion of a small dense island. Not to mention, where are you going to pull the troops from? France will like this, and I can't see the UK rolling over.
 
Tough, on a lot of levels.

I mean, first you have to get there. (no small task but doable, assuming great German luck). Ok, let's say the Kaiser wins the lottery and manages to get his troops ashore.

Now what? This is WW1, so roll out the trenches, quick firing artillery, machine guns, and gas. Not the stuff you want for a quick moving invasion of a small dense island. Not to mention, where are you going to pull the troops from? France will like this, and I can't see the UK rolling over.

1 in 1,000,000,000

look at those zeroes.
 
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