Original Item: Only One Available. Operation Sea Lion (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe) was the plan to invade the United Kingdom by NSDAP Germany during World War II. The plan began in 1940. However, Germany first had to control the sky and sea of the English Channel before a land invasion. With the German Navy weakened during the German invasion of Norway and the German Air Force defeated in the Battle of Britain, the operation was put off on 17 September 1940 and so never happened.

This 21” x 15 ½” paper map is dated March 1941 and features official stamping. The map is of Essex, England and is a 1:25000 example. The map is in great framed condition and features all the normal sections a map does: Key, Size, Legend, Version etc.

A wonderful piece of history ready for display!

Operation Sealion was the code name for NSDAP Germany’s planned invasion of Britain. It was supposed to take place in September 1940 and, had it been successful, would have completed Adolf AH’s domination of western Europe.

In the preceding months, the German Army had already swept across much of the continent. Western Poland had fallen early on, in the autumn of 1939. Denmark and Norway had been defeated six months later, in the spring of 1940. Then came Belgium, the Netherlands and northern France in May and June. British troops on the mainland had also been defeated: at Dunkirk they had been forced to abandon their equipment and retreat back across the Channel. On paper, therefore, the invasion of Britain was the logical final step.

There were three aspects to the German invasion plan: the battle in the air, the battle at sea, and the amphibious assault on the British beaches.

The first and most important step was to neutralize the Royal Air Force: a cross-Channel invasion would be far too dangerous to attempt without first achieving command of the air. The head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering, famously boasted that his planes could smash the RAF within just a few weeks. In mid-July, therefore, he launched a massive attack on British aircraft and airfields with the intention of destroying Britain’s capacity to defend itself. This was the beginning of the air battle that came to be known as the Battle of Britain.

The second prerequisite for an invasion was command of the sea. For the Germans this seemed like a far more daunting challenge. Though the Kriegsmarine had dozens of U-boats at its disposal, most of its big surface ships had already been sunk, damaged or worn out in the Norway campaign earlier in the year. Britain, by contrast, still had the largest navy in the world, which would in all likelihood destroy any invasion force even before it had the chance to land. The head of the Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, therefore drew up plans to distract the Royal Navy with a decoy attack in the North Sea. Then, by laying vast minefields in the Channel, he hoped to be able to protect German forces just long enough for the invasion to take place.

The final part of the plan was the invasion itself. The Germans had no specialized landing craft of the sort that the Allies would use in the Normandy landings four years later, so they assembled hundreds of river barges instead, which they planned to tow across the sea with tug boats. The first wave onto the beaches would consist of the infantry, whose job would be to secure the beach heads. Next would come the horses, tanks and other vehicles, along with vital supplies to help with the break-out from the beaches. In the meantime, airborne troops would also drop behind the British lines to attack the defenders from the rear.

It is unclear whether Operation Sealion was ever a serious plan, or whether it was merely a ploy to put pressure on the British to capitulate. AH’s ultimate aim had always been to invade the Soviet Union. He much preferred to do so without having to worry about fighting Britain at the same time – but when it became clear that the British were not going to seek terms, he dropped his invasion plans and concentrated on his real objectives in the east.