The amphibious operations carried out or planned during World War 1 and World War 2 by the German armed forces. These are listed and discussed in the context of criticisms of the planned invasion of Britain, Operation Sealion. For each operation, you can see what size they were, how they were organised, how long there was for its preparations, whether there was air or sea superiority, the strength of the defences, and more. For the latter part of the Second World War, most of these operations were evacuations and many were on the same scale as the Dunkirk evacuation and just as successful. The video shows that in World War 2, the Germans were able to mount many successful amphibious operations in the face of allied naval superiority when the Axis forces had air superiority. They did these operations without having a joint comand structure and without years of planning. They also succeeded without having specialist craft built for the purpose, at least initailly. After the cancellation of Operation Sealion, the Germans made use of their new found amphibious capabilities in ways that prolonged the war.
thanks for watching this video about German amphibious operations of the first and second world wars I produced this video because I wrote an article for war in history about operation Seine and the reviewers asked me to produce a list of comparable operations that the Germans had been involved in um to see if uh they could have been successful in those operation ations and if also to talk about their experience in so the main operation in the first World War was called operation albian uh which was invasion of the Baltic Islands um and that had some effects on the organization of the German Army and also on um the uh subsequent operations in the second world war but uh generally its lessons were forgotten um but the the interesting thing of course is that there have been several um German amphibious operations and of course even to say German amphibious operations is an is an unusual thing to say and most people would not think in that term at all so um as I mentioned operation albian was the first one um and this involved uh a naval battle the battle of moon sound against zaris Russian forces uh which the Germans won and they also uh used uh special horse Landing barges of which were unpowered um but uh they were successful they realized that they needed to uh have a fast reaction force and for this they uh carried two battalions of cyclists who were to advance quickly onto the islands and cut the Russian Retreat uh the forces involved were actually quite large the Germans had 24,000 soldiers um and the Russians had a similar number of men uh so this wasn’t just a a small um noncon Cal operation um it the operation was a success for the Germans uh but they realized that uh afterwards that there was a need for better multi-service Co coordination and this led to the establishment of the okw in 1938 but unfortunately that was taken over by Hitler as his Secretariat and never really used as a coordinating body for the different armed services of the verar um they also initiated a project for uh building a uh Army landing craft but that that of course went very slowly and they still only had one in at the end of 1940 the next and probably best known operation is Operation vub um sorry if I got the uh pronunciation wrong Vis Ruben um so invasion of Norway and Denmark in 9th of April 94 this really showed the capabilities of the German Army at its peak um where they were um transporting troops and Landing them uh up nearly 1500 km apart from one another all over the place um and uh they were using six division about six uh on the Allied side what that there were 60,000 from Denmark and you know the Allies had 35,000 including polish and French and and British troops uh the Germans had nine divisions and they had just a few tanks um and uh they used the entire German Navy what there was of it and most of the heavy uh elements of the fleet and most of the destroyers were a destroyed in this action but it was a success um and uh another unique aspect to this was that there was an attempt to have a unified command where General Falcon horse was in point was appointed commander-in-chief of the operation uh uh uh now on on these uh Pages you’ll notice that I’ve listed the amount of time there was for planning um so for instance this one there was just over two months to plan the operation and the reason for this is because with the uh uh Operation Sea line having only 3 months to plan it from July till September um to plan the operation um that’s one of the arguments people say Well it couldn’t possibly have succeeded uh and as you can see with the VISA Oran which was every every bit is complicated um and they only had two months to plan it and it succeeded uh although of course um in in naric the U German troops were about to surrender or at least um run away to Sweden when the Allies evacuated because of the um going on in France um another aspect of the these Oran operation was the uh ger German Torpedoes uh which hit a lot of British ships uh there were um some British ships suffered severe damage from aexs but it was uh the Royal Navy seemed to be very much a uh a verse to air the threat of air attacks and uh they declared part of the North Sea as a noo zone for roal Navy ships uh that’s the bit closest to Norway between Norway and Denmark um and uh there was one uh uh ship that um I think was an aircraft carrier that uh a single bomb landed um near the ship it was a clear Miss but it unseated the drive shafts so it had to go home immediately another Heavy Cruiser was hit by an air attack and a arrived back at uh in Scotland with its deck are washed uh but on the whole the the German uh air attacks weren’t that Dreadful um but the Royal Navy didn’t perceive it that way they really uh were scared by the air attacks uh and this uh was one of the things that would have led into operation Seine uh was the attitude of the Navy to the of the royal Navy that is to to air attacks and that was a key point in the German plan uh was that they were going to try to overwhelm the Royal Navy with air attacks um and of course the uh one of the um instances where things could have been very different is uh the uh torpedoing off the um Battleship I think it was H Miss Nelson uh which was the flagship of the home Fleet and so it had Nelson it had um the uh admiral of the home Fleet on board as well as Churchill uh at the time and it was hit by several Torpedoes but none of them failed to go off um and that on other occasions as well so the the fact that the Royal Navy came out of it fairly unscathed except for a few losses you know like they lost the um one one aircraft carry and a few Cruisers and stuff um they uh it could have been quite different so that brings us to operation Seine and the characteristics of operation sea line so uh for sea line they had they eventually assembled 3 to 4,000 vessels and you probably don’t believe me but it’s that’s the if the there were at least uh there were nearly 2,000 barges which even after the a attacks on the ports was like uh 1800 1800 barges um and there were lots of small motorboats which is why there were so many you know 1,200 motorboats um that that were used for uh command uh they in the first wave the Germans had nine divisions of 67,000 men plus a parachute division um and about 1,800 armor vehicles were included in that which uh and in u the followup divisions uh they had about five Panza divisions uh in the in the initial wave there was um about the equivalent of a Panzer Division spread amongst the various troops of uh specialist uh tank types um and defending defending against them there were uh 20 between 27 and 29 divisions of equivalent um about 400,000 men uh plus million men of the Home Guard but of course the thing about it was that um uh only four full only four infantry divisions were fully equipped and trained uh and there were two armored divisions but um they also had their problems um and the beach fortifications were in many ways improvised and of poor quality uh so were the the uh defending guns so for instance the the 6in guns that were set up um which were taken from first world war ships uh only had limited ammunition and a lot of the ammunition was faulty um so they were told basically not to fire until you see the whites of their eyes um um and of course the thing about operation Seine was that it was cancelled uh because the um uh Germans didn’t get air superiority in the battle of brisen um the next uh operation that uh invasion of an island that was similar was the invasion of of CIT in May 1941 um this was meant to be mainly an Airborne operation and they um uh nearly failed um and it’s just they were just lucky that you know a New Zealand uh Commander misunderstood his orders and and deci and ordered his troops to leave a hill that was overlooking the main Airfield and because of that the Germans were able to occupy the eventually occupy the Airfield and start Landing all the rest of their troops the amphibious operations um there were a couple uh and they were basically unsuccessful they um they were either turned back or sunk uh except for an Italian operation which went to the south of the island and came from the East um this operation they they only had 3 weeks to plan it um and uh it was another operation where the Germans had did have air superiority uh but they the number of troops they had invading were actually uh you know they only had about half as many troops as they were actually on the island uh of course they were of all sorts of Standards um so when uh ger Germany invaded um Russia uh the same situation came up again that they needed to invade invade the um Baltic Islands again and uh this was called operation bwolf 2 and S freed um and this involved um uh one Infantry Division and 150 brandenburger commanders 50 of which landed by gladers um and they used all the equipment that they’ created for operation sealine so one of the things about sea line is that it it extended the Second World War because it created all this equipment for the Germans uh and train troops to use it uh which they then used over and over again and in many and as we’ll see um this led to uh troops surviving uh or succeeding where it would have not otherwise have been possible um the this invasion of the um Islands was actually uh when they first used the me 321 gigant gliders which were enormous um aircraft um which were designed for invading Britain with tanks um they had 3 months to plan for this and of course they probably looked up what they’ done previously um and so then we had uh another uh um we had more uh amphibious operations around the uh Crimea um and um the first of these was Operation Traen y tra Traen yaged which um was the Battle of the Kirch Peninsula um and that involved a um a flanking attack using um assault boats um they had one regiment from the 132 division uh using about 75 stum boots um the um Russians had a much larger defending Force but they weren’t expecting this attack um and the Germans had air superiority um so this operation um was one of man Stein’s greatest victories because they the Germans won against uh enormous odds on the part of the Russian part uh on the part of the Russians and also the terrain um was like a narrow Peninsula which they were attacking and and didn’t favor them at all but again it was a German success so let’s have a look at some more of these um the next few we’ll have Stang Hercules Blu asbar Brun hild and leopard tyen and and uh you’ll see that these these operations are often characterized by having um air superiority um is a major Point um and surprise and um also using and one other major point is that the Germans didn’t use specialist troops and of course it’s another thing point about operation SE line is the Germans would not have used specialized troops except for some Commandos and a few Marines um it would have just few normal troops um so operation Stang was the amphibious assault on Sesto the the final assault um where they um crossed SE saniah Bay into the town and into the rear of the um fortifications and they used 700 men um and the assault was complet they used the various methods to to uh hide the uh noise of the boats so the Russians didn’t hear them coming and it was a complete Suze surprise and a complete success and also a crucial part of the success of the whole operation of the final capture of uh sevastopol by the Germans uh next we have another operation that didn’t happen but was planned in great detail and also prepared for in great detail just like operation Seine which is Operation Hercules which was the um proposed invas of Malta which was scheduled to happen in uh mid July 1942 um you can see there’s some pictures of the the um Russian uh tanks that the Germans were going to use because they at the time they didn’t have any real heavy tanks uh or tanks with the type of armor or Armament that the Russians did um so that was just one aspect of it uh you know the the uh the Germans uh transported The Landing barges down through the um the French Canal system and by rail um down to the Mediterranean and the Italians built um uh licens built versions of the the same Craft um and again we had the same um craft that were designed for operation Seine about to be used to take over Malta whether it would have succeeded or not it’s another question because they would have to again it would have been in the face of Royal Navy opposition but at least on this occasion though they would have had the Italian Navy to help them there wouldn’t have been uh such a a difficult operation as as sea in the terms of um they Seine operations main problem was AC course the Royal Navy which was enormous and the compared to the German Navy uh in this case the um Italians had parity and even superiority to the German navian at least in numbers um after they sank the um British battleships in in Alex alandria Harbor and so forth um the Italians didn’t know this CU they settle on the bottom um but ex some at some times during the the the war the Italians actually had a superiority in battleships and so forth of course they didn’t um have the fuel uh and they also were unwilling to use them um more involved in the the idea of a fleeting being um but this was another operation that um uh apparently the Italians had actually planned to do some sort of operation from before the war and of course it’s very stupid of them that when they declared war they didn’t launch it immediately because they probably would have had the same effect as the um uh German invasion of um Norway and so forth because that the that was one of the features of the invasion of Norway and Denmark was it they did it well they were still neutral and that’s one of the elements of surprise and I’m sure that if the Germans had done similar things like they did in Copenhagen Harbor where they they had a German ship full of troops that suddenly dis disgorged them onto the harbor and that’s one reason why they were to take it over so easily um I’m sure they might have tried something like that um but of course it didn’t happen because um uh although um Romo was actually a big uh supporter of the operation he decided that you know we’ve captured all this stuff in in in uh in to Brook and we’re not going to proceed with the plan anymore which was you know we’re going to take the plan originally was we’re going to take to Brook and then when we’ve taken Malta we will then proceed from to Brook to Egypt um but he he got uh of Victory disease and decided to pursue the British out of uh you know out of tobook because they just captured so much stuff there um and the end result being that he arrived in Egypt with only 30 um working tanks and uh he was beaten off um then so we come to September 1942 and the crossing of the kch staits um which is called Operation Blue 2 um again they used the landing craft for this um and it was involved a campc from the 46 infant division so not a terribly big operation initially uh and then we uh jumped to the end of uh 1943 uh when the after the Italians surrendered the Germans then uh took over the Greek Islands um and uh some of them were actually of course it the deines islands in in the Eastern Mediterranean are actually part of Italy um and the Germans invaded them um and the British were part of the Defenders so they actually British and uh Italians fighting side by side on on these islands um and these were very humiliating defeats for the British because uh the uh British had uh Naval superiority but the Germans had air superiority just like in operation The Proposal in operation SE line and in in many cases the German uh Naval forces had to travel longer distances to get to the island uh in the face of this British Naval superiority and they still succeeded uh they they only had a short time to prepare it um and the numbers of men they had uh were generally inferior to the ones Defenders to the defending operation um and the uh operations in the uh does Islands were class as the last uh successful operations um or the last successful invasions by the Germans in the Second World War uh some call it the last uh British uh defeat but it in fact that was Operation Market Garden um or you which was at least a stalemate um and so from now on most of the operations or if not all of them are are evacuations but again this is where you get this idea of the you know the having all these um uh Marine firearm primes mfps which which were the landing craft uh seable fairies uh these were all um craft built for operation Seine and in uh this first evacuation of the Kuban uh Bridge head across the cir Street um they had um 2 months to prepare for it they evacuated 15 divisions over 38 days in the face of Russian naval superiority and uh hardly lost anything in the process and uh of course the most famous um DOTA K’s Island operation was Operation leopard or Typhon or typhoon um and uh uh that again was uh another humiliating British defeat um where uh they actually used to um airborne troops as well so there was a mixture of airborne troops and also Naval troops some some of the naval troops Landings were stopped by the British Navy but not all of them and eventually the British and Italian troops on the island surrendered and so now we come to the final section um uh where again where U all the German operations are except for the last one are all evacuations uh of huge numbers of men and uh if these evacuations had not succeeded the war would have ended a lot sooner uh first we have operation leag Grand um or in other words tutorial um which was the evacuation Across The Straits of mesina from Sicily to Italy um when they evacuated about 100,000 troops and their equipment including tiger tanks um and uh they only had about weeks planning and preparation for this um and the Allies had Naval superiority but they or at least Naval equality um but they were afraid to go into the narrow Straits because of the fears of mines and so forth and that that’s uh similar to um what was to propose for operation SE line which was uh you know a narrow a fairly narrow not as obviously not as narrow but the same sort of thing was um the Royal Navy um uh said at least uh the commander of the home Fleet said in uh conference with the other uh military Chiefs and Churchill that um the Royal Navy uh major surface Fleet uh units would not go into the the uh English Channel because of the uh difficulty of U maneuvering in the channel uh it’s and because the water was shallow and because they were afraid of air attacks and of course minefields which the Germans were going which for the Germans the uh there was also the the channel guns as well um in this case it was like the both sides of the channel were line with anti-aircraft guns and so that’s why the uh Allied air power was not very effective uh the next uh evacuation we had was from the Crimea uh and sylvesta Pole uh when again of course Hitler refused to let them do it in a reasonable amount of time and left it to the last moment but even so they were able to evacuate 44,000 troops at in just a few days from sylvas pole and in total over 113,000 access troops were evacuated um and the despite Russian aircraft at the attacking the convoys so the Germans didn’t have an air superiority they didn’t have Naval superiority but the Russians were not keen on using the their major surface leet uh units um and this is probably one of the most important evacuations at least from the Western allies point of view was the the evacuation from the Shelt estery um of the entire 15th army or 100,000 men nine infantry divisions across the Shel um in front of uh ANP um this meant that um the uh uh Port of anwp stayed closed much longer than it needed might might have otherwise um and also that um the island of Walter and then had to be uh had to have a major in Invasion done of it um by the Canadians um and it was another major amphibious operation um and this also meant that because troops were able to cross over they were able to reinforce the troops uh fighting the Allies in operation Market Garden so it contributed to the failure of operation Market Garden um and for this particular operation the uh German troops only had about one day’s warning to plan for it um they were evacuating from ports two ports but the again they were using the same equipment used in uh operation SE line uh and of course one of the points made about operation SE line is the number of hor drawn um wagons and so forth that were used by the German Army the German Army will for Seine was going to replace as many as possible of the horor uh uh vehicles with uh captured uh French vehicles and so forth but in this even in this particular operation they were were even able to evacuate 6,000 horer and wagons um it’s incredible um and another famous operation of course was the uh uh cause the by Hitler’s in transigent uh that meant that the war this probably meant actually the war was shorter because uh these troops got trapped in cooland and Hitler refused to evacuate them uh see he kept thinking in terms of you know a bridge head that we’re going to attack from this area uh so we’re going to hold on to it as long as possible and in fact many of the troops are still there at the end of the second world war um uh it wasn’t in January 1945 seven divisions were evacuated it was the same uh with Norway um the uh threat of an Allied attack on Norway which was actually quite real because um uh Churchill kept advocating an attack on Norway uh to his uh military Chiefs and they constantly had to persuade him not to do it um so um all these churs are locked up when they could have been delaying the Russian army um in this case it was an entire Army group and then that also led to a further evacuation which of the of East Prussia and Pomerania um and this probably did involve evacuation from beaches and so forth and which involved um uh maybe a million people who knows um and it also involved the world world’s worst Maritime div disaster the seeking of Phil gusoff with which had more than 9,000 people were drowned um in this case the they the people were traveling over, 1600 kilm and they they still managed to do it despite J Russian submarines and gar what else attacking them um and finally we have the Granville raid um which um was actually launched you know um a month before the end of the war um and uh it was a success um and it involved all of the same types of ships and that were to be used in Operation Sea line so they were going to use the German M sweepers which were called uh but Coastal destroyers by the British because they were so large and capable um as well as the um uh landing craft and and the armed landing craft and uh all all the rest of it um it was only a landing involving a battalion of 600 soldiers or so uh but again they weren’t necess they weren’t um probably just uh they were just ordinary troops um there was surprise involved um they did and um their main it probably turned out to be just the huge tides in that part of the world um and which meant that although they um captured or D damaged some British ships they’re only able to to get away with one of them um and uh and also get into some of the warehouses and get some food so the the M it’s quite laughable really that the the objective of this raid was the fact was to get some coal and some food because the uh Channel Islands um Garrison was starving uh um yeah but the it was nevertheless a success and uh uh quite a crazy thing that uh you know the commander wanted to do it again but uh He was ordered not to by once Hitler was got went out of was out of power so um we can conclude that German amphibious operations were generally successful uh even though they used troops that were not specially trained and often used equipment that was not spec specifically made for the job uh although of course uh uh we have here a picture of one of the actual Invasion barges the last surviving one um it was converted um from a um a an inland barge but there there have actually been um uh voyages across the channel by tourists in these barges showing that they can be done um they had uh a lot of these operations had short planning and preparation times um 3 months is is seems to be quite usual or or even less uh the Germans succeeded in many of these operations without having Naval Supremacy or H and uh they also succeeded without having a unified command structure in most of these operations as well um there seems to been only the one just the where they made an attempt to do that um H but air superiority was a factor in many of them uh so it was perhaps right for the Germans to have uh not proceeded with the invasion of Britain without Naval without Naval and air superiority okay so U thanks for watching