"Sea Lion"
The original plan of "Sea Lion" intended to transfer troops with an armada of 155 ships and 3,000 lighters. There were only few landing crafts similar to the ones at D-Day in Normandy available. Everything was improvised amateurishly organized that the practising troops already started to joke about the invasion.
The army did not approve of the plan either. The too small landing zones and the too low number of advance troops were criticized. Von Rundstedts Army Group A was the main attack formation.. The16. Army of General Busch should disembark on the right wing, 9. Army of General Strauß at the left wing at Ramsgate. Cherbourg was chosen as operational base for Army Group B. Three divisions of General von Reichenau should thrust northward to Bristol. The other units of Army Group B, 120 000 men in ten infantry divisions supported by 650 tanks, were to be embarked as first wave. A week after the landing, the bridgehead should be safeguarded and an attack carried out against the western area of London.
A ridiculous two weeks the OKW (supreme command of Wehrmacht) worked on the draft of the plans. The allied staff needed two years for their preparations for the operation Overlord, the landing in the Normandy! It is no surprise that there was no great enthusiasm for the plan in the German staff. At first the invasion was fixed for July 31. Then it was postponed until September 17, however. Provided, that air supremacy had been achieved. Göring in total misjudgement of the real situation and in a fatal false estimation of the true strength of the Royal Air Force explained flashily that "his" Luftwaffe would win this fight.
“Never in the history of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.”
Winston Churchill
This is a clear thanksgiving to the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of Fighter Command as well as to Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding the chief of the Supreme Fighter Command. He contradicted Churchills attempt to put fighter planes into operation in France and also opposed the mission as escorts to ship convoys. He was convinced firmly that the hour of his fighters would come with the beginning of the air battle.
The protagonists of the coming events had respectively a wrong assessment of their opponent. The English were terrified by the Luftwaffe they had seen over Poland and experienced over France. The German Messerschmidt Me 109, the standard fighter by the middle of 1940, proved to be superior to the English Hurricanes slightly, at least equal to the Spitfire although the Spitfire was ahead of the Me 109 technically and aeronautically in some respect. The general of the fighter pilots, Adolf Galland, replied to Görings question what he needed to win the battle: "Give me a squadron of Spitfire!"
Actually, the RAF overestimated the German Luftwaffe. Their range was too short for an efficient bomber escort. The fighters had just 30 minutes for action over Southern England, then the reserve tank lamp came on and the planes took course on France. If a German pilot was shot down over England, he was lost for the Luftwaffe for good. The British pilots however, were back in action again if they survived a crash. The German bomber fleet was also overestimated. The fact that the Germans had passed in sleeping the development of heavy four-engine bombers should backfire. Later The German towns had to suffer badly from such four-engine bomber fleets later.
In return the Luftwaffe underestimated the Royal Air Force inexcusably. Not only the aircraft got bad marks, the excellent fighter control system was also ignored completely. The big transmitter masts at the southern coast were well known, however, they were not linked-up with the British early warning radar system.
The Germans in the end remained in the dark completely concerning the British state of fighter production. They estimated the output of Spits and Hurricanes as of 130 - 330 maximum. Truly, the English increased the production up to 496 machines in August. At that time, the new minister of aircraft production, Lord Beaverbrook put into motion what Albert Speer did later in Germany: Concentration on the essential.
However, one aspect still must be stressed in connection with the coming events. The Battle of Britain was the last knightly fought combat in a great conflict certainly. This observation became widely known after the war when the enemies from the past, Galland, Bader and many more met regularly at air shows like the one at Biggin Hill.
