Operation Sea Lion: The Failed Nazi Invasion that Turned the Tide of War

by Leo McKinstry

Overview

Only Britain stood in the way of the complete triumph, and Hitler planned a two-pronged offensive—a blistering aerial bombardment followed by a land invasion—to subdue his final enemy. But for the first time in the war, Hitler did not prevail. As Leo McKinstry details in this fascinating new history, the British were far more ruthless and proficient than is usually recognized. The brilliance of the RAF in the Battle of Britain was not an exception but part of a pattern of magnificent organization that thwarted Hitler’s armies at every turn. Using a wealth of archival and primary source materials, Leo McKinstry provides a groundbreaking new assessment of the six fateful months in mid-1940 when Operation Sea Lion was all that stood between the Nazis and total victory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468312560
Publisher:	The Overlook Press
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Leo McKinstry writes regularly for the Daily Mail, Sunday Telegraph and Spectator. Born in Belfast, he was educated at Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Introduction: 'He is coming!' 1

1 'Walking with destiny' 6

2 'Last Desperate Venture' 10

3 'These persons should be behind barbed wire' 21

4 'Facing up to the possibility of invasion' 35

5 'Bring England to its knees' 50

6 'We shall fight on' 59

7 'Drown the brutes is what I'd like to do' 69

8 'Making bricks without much straw' 81

9 'Our backs are against the wall' 100

10 'A unified Ireland under the German jackboot' 114

11 'It is repugnant to abandon British territory' 120

12 'To the last ship and man' 125

13 'We hurl it back, right in your evil-smelling teeth' 135

14 'To defend our own little patch of England' 151

15 'A menace to the security of the country' 166

16 'Hide them in caves and cellars' 182

17 'The sea itself began to boil' 193

18 'Foul methods help you kill quickly' 209

19 'The Fuhrer orders an abduction to be organised at once' 224

20 'The days are numbered for those bums over in England' 238

21 'All that for tuppence and an orange' 258

22 'A new aristocracy of German masters will have slaves' 277

23 'One gigantic conflagration' 298

24 'The extraordinary gravity of Britain's present situation' 315

25 'We knew far too little of England' 327

Acknowledgements 345

Illustration Credits 345

Notes 347

Bibliography 372

Index 382