Hitler's Britain

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Well, when you consider that the German army has had little need for major amphibious operations across large bodies of water, and aside from the attack on the UK it would have very little need for it. Invading America would be a big no-no, so there's no need to build them for that, so it just wasn't developed. Small rivers and the like, the German army wasn't too shabby at fording, although obviously they preferred to capture bridges intact. But yes, Catfish is partially correct in that Hitler didn't expect, nor want, war with Britain, heck he had a partial respect for the Empire and its history, and Sealion was really just a half-assed effort to keep the German military busy and if the opportunity presented itself (very unlikely) then it would be ready for implementation, but primarily his mind was on Barbarossa and the Soviets.

That is interesting in that the Germans launched so may operations outside of continental Europe. They invaded Norway by sea which they did so following much of the Marines' doctrine from the 20's landing troops from warships via the ship's launches. They invaded Crete by air and went to N. Africa by sea plus a lot of their Baltic stuff. With the exception of Norway the Germans tried to have expeditionary warfare without amphibious warfare.

And yes the Germans were good at crossing rivers but look at the Western Allies, some of that anphib gear was great at crossing rivers like the LVT amtrak.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

That is interesting in that the Germans launched so may operations outside of continental Europe. They invaded Norway by sea which they did so following much of the Marines' doctrine from the 20's landing troops from warships via the ship's launches. They invaded Crete by air and went to N. Africa by sea plus a lot of their Baltic stuff. With the exception of Norway the Germans tried to have expeditionary warfare without amphibious warfare.

And yes the Germans were good at crossing rivers but look at the Western Allies, some of that anphib gear was great at crossing rivers like the LVT amtrak.

Oh, definitely, I'm not slating the Amphib quality of the Allies, particularly when you get to the island campaigns and the crossing of the Rhine.