Operation Sea Lion

Operation Sea Lion (German:Unternehmen Seelöwe) was Nazi Germany's code name for a provisionally proposed invasion of the United Kingdom during the Battle of Britain in the Second World War. Following the Fall of France the Nazis expected the British to seek a peace agreement, and invasion was considered as a last resort if other options failed. As a precondition, the proposed operation required both air and naval superiority over the English Channel and proposed landing sites, neither of which the Germans ever achieved during the war. A large number of barges were adapted as the proposed invasion fleet, but Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940 and never carried out. The German High Command (German:Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) had no confidence that the plan was feasible, and most historians agree it had little possibility of success.