Product Description: “I have decided to prepare for, and if necessary to carry out, an invasion against England.”—Adolph Hitler, July 16, 1940 Operation Sealion was the codename for the Nazi invasion of Britain that Hitler ordered his generals to plan after France fell in June 1940...read more

In the summer of 1941 when the likelihood of an invasion was a daily threat to the people of England, one of the most intriguing and persistent legends of the Second World War was born—that German troops landed on the coast of East Anglia in a prelude to the invasion that was then only weeks, perhaps even days away. It is a legend that has inspired writers such as Graham Greene, the filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti, and of course, Jack Higgins, whose 1975 novel The Eagle Had Landed was an international bestseller and became a hugely popular film. But all of these stories are fiction. Using recently declassified documents, eyewitness accounts, contemporary reports, and newspaper and magazines features, Peter Haining's investigates the story and ultimately provides the solution to an enduring mystery, while at the same time illuminating a particularly fraught period of Britain's wartime history.

A controversial account of the Battle of Britain challenges popular beliefs that the RAF may not have prevented the Nazi invasion of the British Isles, arguing that bad weather and the Luftwaffe's failure to destroy the RAF were key factors in the victory.

Product Description: In the summer of 1940--after the Nazis crushed France and defeated Belgium--all Britain prepared for a German invasion. English forces stood on the Channel coast, waiting, but though the Luftwaffe bombarded Britain day and night, occupying forces never arrived...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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Standing alone against Hitler's powerful Wehrmacht after the fall of Holland, Belgium, and France, Great Britain engages its land, sea, and air forces in the climactic Battle of Maidstone