Operation Sea Lion

On July sixteenth, 1940, Hitler issued Directive No. 16, setting in motion Operation Sea Lion—his plan to invade England. The success of Operation Sea Lion hinged entirely on the destruction of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. Yet even as Hitler’s plans swung into action, England rallied her defences, the Battle of Britain began, and in just a few months Germany had lost all hope of dominating England’s skies, and with it the key to the invasion. In September 1940, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely and the entire episode faded from memory. It would be another 17 years before Peter Fleming rescued the story from military archives and, together with the recollections of those involved, pieced together the dramatic preparations for what could have been one of the most significant and potentially world-changing battles in history