Operation Sea Lion: A Joint Critical Analysis

Abstract

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.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 30, 2002
Accession Number
ADA421637

Entities

People

  • Dario E. Teicher
  • Greg D. Olson
  • Randy Mccanne

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Defense
  • Air Force
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Amphibious Operations
  • Artillery
  • Bombing
  • Center Of Gravity
  • Command And Control
  • Defense Systems
  • Homeland Defense
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Navy
  • Sea Lions
  • Second World War
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • History

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.