Operation Sea Lion: A Joint Critical Analysis Or How Hitler Could Have Won If He Were More Joint

Three U.S. officers -- one from the Air Force one from the Army and one from the Navy -- met at the Joint Forces Staff College to argue that a truly joint approach could have produced success for Hitler in Operation Sea Lion the proposed invasion of England in 1940. Military history contains many lessons from which the warfighting doctrine of the individual services as well as joint doctrine is derived. World War II stands as one of the major contributors of valuable lessons learned. From a joint and combined warfighting perspective Germanys planning and preparatory military actions to the invasion of Great Britain after the fall of France are instructive. Their plan called Operation SEA LION by the Germans was never carried out as certain prerequisite conditions were never achieved and Hitler elected to move on to other operations. But Germany could have been successful in invading and if necessary occupying Great Britain had they exercised joint and combined operations to achieve better unity of effort within the German military remained focused on key British operational centers of gravity and exploited the capabilities of friendly nations such as Spain Italy and the Vichy government of France.