Electrical Grid and Power Stations.

A set of German documents prepared for Operation Sea Lion, the planned Nazi invasion of England and Wales. (See Pub List No 7807.000 through 7811.000). Materials are 11 A4 sized folders, each containing maps and a book of photographs including 144 town maps and 1500+ photographs. Set also has three thick A5 sized folders containing books with photographs, drawings and maps: Folder A: England and Wales; Folder B: London; Folder C: Coasts. Convinced the British would capitulate without a fight, Hitler waffled on invading Great Britain. As a result, he did not order adequate preparation for an invasion in 1940. Regardless, the British were not about to surrender and immense problems faced the Germans including: failed strategies in the Battle of Britain which left the Royal Air Force as a major force, a lack of seaworthy transports, limited intelligence about Great Britain, an inferior navy compared to the British, and a lengthy Channel passage of 200 miles (verses 40 miles for the Allies in 1944). As time passed after Dunkirk, the British took significant measures to counter invasion including: organizing and arming the Home Guard including countrywide round-the-clock surveillance, rearming and re-equipping the regular troops evacuated from Dunkirk, and developing of a resolute population. After the Germans were unable to meet invasion target dates in Fall, 1940, their preparation improved; however, so did the British capabilities to resist. No invasion was ever launched as the Nazis became preoccupied with fighting Russia and around the Mediterranean. Author Peter Fleming, in Operation Sea Lion, concludes that the best possibility for a successful invasion would have been shortly after Dunkirk, something the Germans had no plan to do. Fleming’s entertaining 1957 book lays out a myriad of misconceptions, hare-brained schemes, problems, and rumors which bedeviled both the Germans and the British. See also materials on the plan to invade Ireland, Operation Green.