Operation Sea Lion: A Joint Critical Analysis
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Lt Col Randy McCanne
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Operation Sea Lion - Lt Col Randy McCanne
USN
I. — Introduction
Military history contains many lessons from which the warfighting doctrine of the individual services, as well as joint doctrine, is derived. World War II stands as one of the major contributors of valuable lessons learned. From a joint and combined warfighting perspective, Germany’s planning and preparatory military actions to the invasion of Great Britain after the fall of France are instructive. Their plan, called Operation SEA LION by the Germans, was never carried out, as certain prerequisite conditions were never achieved, and Hitler elected to move on to other operations. But Germany could have been successful in invading and, if necessary, occupying Great Britain had they exercised joint and combined operations to achieve better unity of effort within the German military, remained focused on key British operational centers of gravity, and exploited the capabilities of friendly nations such as Spain, Italy, and the Vichy government of France.
II. — Background
A. Political Situation
World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. The German dictator, Adolf Hitler, advised his armed forces in Führer Directive No. 1: All political means having been exhausted to correct in a peaceful manner the unbearable situation on Germany’s eastern border, I have decided upon a solution by force
(9, 49).
The unbearable situation
was the separation of East Prussia from Germany by the creation of Poland following World War I. Cleverly, Hitler had isolated Poland through political means
and shaped the battlefield in his favor. He secured Germany’s eastern borders when on 23 August 1939 Germany signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union in which both secretly agreed to dismember Poland (21). Great Britain and France had offered Poland defense guarantees, and both declared war on Germany two days after the invasion; but with the Soviet Union in the German camp, the guarantees proved worthless. Trapped between Germany and the Soviet Union, a surrounded Poland ceased to exist in less than one month.
Meanwhile, to the south, Hitler had forged a close alliance with fellow Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini of Italy. In 1936, Italy had entered into a formal alliance with Germany known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. The Axis would later include Japan in September 1940 (2). Overseas in the United States, isolationist sentiments were strong, and in any case France and Britain appeared to have the balance of power in their favor. Hence, Americans hoped to remain