Military Model Scene

We March Against England...

Title: We March Against England

Author: Robert Forczyk

Publisher: Osprey

ISBN: 978-1-4728-2983-2

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This is a new paperback edition of a book first published back in 2016.  The author Robert Forezyk takes a detailed look at the topic of Operation Sea Lion, the planned German invasion of Britain which never happened.  There has been plenty of speculation about it over the years, whether Hitler really wanted to take the war on to English shores or not, and that the end of the Battle of Britain marked the end of the potential invasion in September 1940.  As he mentions in the book, even the famous film 'Battle of Britain' shows soldiers handing in their lifejackets and marching away, indicating the end of the risk in September 1940.

The book considers in depth the multitude of factors which should be taken into account surrounding the potential of Sea Lion, and that this potential actually lasted well into 1941.  It also goes over those many other factors, all of which influenced the course of events.  Intelligence proved to be poor on both sides while objectives for the German in particular were too broad.  The topics vary from the U-Boat war, the use of commerce raiders, a failure on the part of the Luftwaffe to do enough to target strategic tar3gets.  There was also quite clearly a lack on communication/co-operation between the different elements of the German Military which contributed to the German failure.

It also examines the planned landing areas and considers how the Germans would have coped with the attack and equally how thinly stretched were the British defences.  There are useful Orders of Battle included in the Appendices as well.  The German military had put a lot of money and effort in assembling a fleet of landing barges, though not quite the level of Landing Craft developed by the Allies in time for the D-Day operation in 1944.  An interesting read, and it does challenge some common misconceptions about the situation at that early period of the war.

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for this review copy.

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Robin