Why did Hitler not invade Britain?

Answer 1

A successful invasion of Britain was predicated on gaining air superiority. Air superiority was considered necessary because without it, any gathering of troop transports or other naval flotillas would be threatened by air attack. Not just on the invasion day, but every day they were in port being readied for action and filled with material.

The Battle of Britain in 1940 was all about Hitler trying to gain air superiority, but the British valiantly fought them off.

Losing the Battle of Britain, with massive loss of aircraft and aircrews, caused the invasion plan, Operation Sealion, to be abandoned.

Answer 2

The German Army occupied France in 1940. D-Day did not occur until 1944 (june 6th.). Hitler had planned to invade Britain long before the fall of France. By 1941 an invasion By the german army was possible and all ports on the french coast were ready to cross the channel. However he needed Air superiority to succeed. It was left then, to Herman Goering who was in charge of the German Air force to clear the skies before the invasion.and to bomb the british into surrender. It was only the courage of the RAF fighter pilots that won what is known as the Battle Of britain. The German Air force suffere such heavy losses in aircraft that the invasion of Britain was Cancelled. It was then that Hitler turned his attention to the invasion of Russia which was the beggining of the end for his Third Reich.

Answer 3

They could and they would(someone said they didn't have time...why? did they have other pressing engagements?)
In reality Hitler didn't want war with England,and,once the Germans arrived at the sea(Abeville) there was no plan as to what was the next step;(strange,in June 1940 General Paulus was instructed in absolute secrecy to prepare plans for the invasion of USSR,one whole year before it took place,but no plan for the invasion of England existed!).The plan for the operation "Sea Lion"was a plan drawn in a hurry,and the OKW wanted as an Indispensable condition the obtaining by the Luftwaffe air-superiority over England,not really a requirement since what was needed was air-superiority against the beaches where the landings would be made.That would have forced the RAF to fight over the beaches wich were in range for the German fighters taking off from French airports and the Luftwaffe would have achieved local superiority.
It is obvious that Hitler didn't have the will for reasons he only new.

Answer 4

Hitler didn't have a navy capable of destroying or driving off the royal navy thus he would need his air force to drive off the royal navy unfortunately for Hitler the royal air force prevented the Luftwaffe from doing this. so any attempt to cross the channel would have been slaughtered by the royal navy and air forces. This is the only real reason why Hitler didn't invade Britain.

Answer 5

Read 'Mein Kampf' the book he wrote while he was in prison.

One of his main desires was to become an ally of Great Britain, even after Britain had declared war he still held out hope of an alliance.

Then there's also the whole 'Battle of Britain' thing, they wouldn't have done anything without having control of the sky, they didn't manage this so couldn't invade.

Answer 6

He got as far as the channel islands- if that partially counts as invasion of Britain..
The only way he could get troops into Britain was by wiping out as many servicemen at Dunkirk then to gain air superiority over the channel and Britain.
Defeated in the Battle of Britain he could not gain this power over the air and could not gain the chance to send in airborne soldiers, as coastal landings would be too much of a risk!
Also as his armies were stretched at different fronts, the risk was not worth taking.
Companies of captured soviet soldiers were formed, i could have understood if he made an effort in invading with those, although they were poorly trained. His only alternative while Britain was forced back onto its own land was to bomb the main industrial cities to reduce manufacturing.

Answer 7

He tried to invade Britain many times but since the sea was in between both forces he couldn't successfully land. Hitler bombed the hell out of England though. A lot of historians I've talked to about WWII have told me that if Hitler wouldn't have attacked the Soviet Union then he would've conquered Britain and the rest of Western Europe.

Answer 8

The invasion of Britain was called Operation Sealion, the Nazi's prepared barges and various transports with which to get their army to the UK.

Unfortunately the Royal Navy stood in their way, if they entered the channel the RN could rip them to shreds.

In order to defeat the Navy, they first had to defeat the RAF, so that they could bomb the Navy.

The Area defense system of the RAF, along side radar, the aircraft, and their crews (The Few), meant that the Luftwaffe, despite having a 4 to 1 advantage lost.

The codeword for Nazi invasion "Cromwell" was never issued, and in 1941 Hitler cancelled Operation Sealion and decided Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of Russia) was a better prospect.

He was wrong.

Answer 9

Some silly answers on this!

After the fall of France, The RAF prevented the Lutwaffe from gaining air supremacy over Southern England, and the Royal Navy would have slaughtered any invasion fleet.
The Germans were planning an invasion (Operation Sealion), but Hitler wasn't all that serious about it. He was already in 1940 thinking ahead to having a go at the Soviet Union, which he did the following year. He expected Britain to pack it in and talk our way our of the war, and maybe even one day come and join in fighting the Sovs.
There, in a nutshell, the truth.

Or, if you like; he did try, but had got the right paperwork and could't get past Passport Control at Dover

Answer 10

Because the RAF backed by the royal navy firstly stopped him getting air or sea supremacy over the English channel, in the battle of Britain, I might be wrong but the Germain invasion plan was called operation Sea Lion I think.