Blessed be the English Channel. If it didn't exist, and if England were part of contiguous Europe, the great British empire would have quickly fallen to the Axis forces by July of 1940. The German Army, the Wehrmacht, had supplied ample proof to the Allied powers that they were indeed an invincible force. The conquest had started in Eastern Europe, in Czechslovakia and Poland, which had put up only token resistance to the blitzkrieging German forces. After securing these Eastern European nations, and sending Ribbentrop to secure a peace with the rival Soviet Union, Hitler's army turned westward. They attacked Scandinavia; Denmark was conquered quickly, and Norway was added to the list of German provinces.

One country in continental Europe remained free. The French, who knew well the German propensity for invading its borders, had made plans to prevent such an occurrence. The French/German border, where Frederick had advanced in 1870, and where the Kaiser had fought in 1914-1918, was defended by the seemingly impregnable Maginot Line . The brainchild of French Foreign Minister Andre Maginot , the Maginot Line consisted of a series of fortifications and defensive positions. The French had banked their security on this Line, and subsequently reduced the size of their armed forces and failed to prepare for the eventuality of war.

The Germans were uninterested in breaking through the Maginot Line. Instead, they attacked through the neutral nations of Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The Luftwaffe, under the command of Hermann Goering, rained death down on Rotterdam, a clear message to the resistance in Paris and London. Having arrived at the Belgian border to France, they used massive tanks to cross the Ardennes forest, and complete bypass the main defenses of the Maginot Line. The French, completely unable to defend their nation without the aid of the line, fell quickly to the Wehrmacht. Allied forces were forced to retreat to England through the port city of Dunkirk in late May and early June. This retreat, named Operation Dynamo , saved the Allies from complete decimation - they would remain to fight another day. Germany signed an armistice with the now Occupied French forces, completing the contract in the same railway car in which the Germans had surrendered in 1918.

With a colloborationist regime set up in Vichy France, and Spain under the control of the Fascist General Franco, and American maintaining its neutrality, only Britain remained a point of resistance. England's Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, embarrassed by his failures at Munich, (See video-preloaded) (Hear Chamberlain)the evacuation at Dunkirk, and bungling in Scandinavia, was replaced by the hawkish Winston Churchill in 1940. Churchill would not appease or retreat from German forces, telling England that he would offer his "blood, toil, sweat, and tears", and engage Germany whenever possible.

Hitler had no initial interest in England. His desire for Lebenstraum (Living Space) lay in the east, and he wanted Western resistance stamped out. It was under these circumstances that he issued, in July of 1940, that plans be drawn up to invade England through the English channel. This was to be Operation Sea Lion. If it was to be successful, Hitler would rule the whole of Western Europe, and Allied resistance would be completely decimated.