Operation Sea Lion

[ljadw]

you are forgetting the Canadian division

[nebelwerferXXX]

<Mr. Picky™>
The Me 321 Gigant and Ju 322 Mammut did not exist at the time of the Sea Lion 1940 planning.
</Mr. Picky™>

And where did you get the parachute and air landing numbers?
Leo

The numbers for the parachute & air-landing troops were the total for September 1939.
The Me 321 'Gigant' & Ju 322 'Mammut' were in existence already by 1940. Intended for the Plan Invasion of the USA including the 'New York' & 'Amerika' bombers.

[ljadw]

the ME 321 Gigant entered in service in may 1941

[ljadw]

the Mammut project was dropped in may 1941

[Leo Niehorster]

Me 321 "Gigant"
First flight of prototype (V-1) 25.02.1941.
Flghts of the five prototypes (V-1 – V-5) from 25.02.1941 through 10.05.1941.
The first three production models were deleivered to the glider training school in April 1941.
Source:
. "Die Giganten Me 321 & Me 323"
. Luftfahrt Monographie Nr. LS3
. Karl R. Pawlas, Nürnberg, 1974.

Ju 322 "Mammut"
The first prototype (V1) made its maiden flight in April 1941. The test showed the basically flawed design of the aircraft, and the two prototypes were broken up. No production models were ever made.
Source:
. William Green
. "Warplanes of the Third Reich"
. Macdonald & Jane's , London, 1970.

DFS 230
Only 150 of these gliders (crewed by 1 pilot /soldier + 9 soldiers each) were available in August 1940.
Source:
. Peter Schenck
. "Landung in England"
. Oberbaum, Berlin, 1987.

Leo

[nebelwerferXXX]

German amphibious Panzers: Operation 'Sea Lion' 1940
100 amph Panzer Mark IIIs
20 amph Panzer Mark IVs
7 amph APCs

When 'Sea Lion' was postponed indefinitely & eventually canceled, the Amphibious Panzers were all used in the crossing of the River Bug in Operation 'Barbarossa' the invasion of Russia 1941. Advancing 400 miles in three weeks. The fastest mobile unit in the world at that time...

sources:
German General Staff
German Tanks & Fighting Vehicles of World War II

[redcoat]

Web site on the equipment available to the British army after Dunkirk,
http://www.wwiiequipment.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=61

[lwd]

There are extensive discussions on it over on the axis history forum. Quite a few thread with Sea Lion, SeaLiow, Sealowe, etc in the title as well as considerable discussion in the BOB thread in the whatif board. Some have a fair number of links and sources.

[nebelwerferXXX]

There are extensive discussions on it over on the axis history forum. Quite a few thread with Sea Lion, SeaLiow, Sealowe, etc in the title as well as considerable discussion in the BOB thread in the whatif board. Some have a fair number of links and sources.

Do the discussions about 'Sea Lion' OR 'Seelowe' have different data, if you go to Feldgrau OR Axis History Forum? There are many topics in both sites about the operation. Do the Wehrmacht from Feldgrau is different from AHF? If you posted a reply regarding 'Sea Lion' your data from Feldgrau must be different from AHF? So, it's to much confusion...thanks!

[lwd]

There were apparently a number of variations proposed for Sea Lion (Sealowe) and in some of these discussions you will find that disagreements are due to people assuming different variations are the one under discussion. Again stating a source will help limit this confusion. It's not so much that the forums vary but that the topics vary. Many of the AHF threads for instance are fairly specific to make them more useful in looking things up (the BOB thread on the otherhand is something of a nightmare in that regard). It's also not clear to me anyway just how complete the planning was for Sea Lion. Indeed in some cases the planning seem to be oriented at putting the blame for things not working out on other services. For instance the KM was complaining in one document I saw that in Septemeber they were weeks behind in mine sweeping due to lack of support from the LW. Some of the multi taksing also seems confusing or wildly optomistic or perhaps just uncoordinated. For instance the German plan called for an extensive mine field to be laided just prior to the invasion. The assets were pretty marginal for this. As mentioned above they also need to do a fair amount of mine sweeping both near the French ports and potentially near the invasion beaches and ports. Again the assets were tight here. They also had a fairly limited number of combatents for escorting the invasion force. Then you start looking at the details and you find some of the same ships performing all three tasks.