Being there . . . . when Britain’s exacting battle for survival of the fittest began less than three
weeks after the fall of France on July 10, 1940, and when England’s southeast Channel radar
stations simultaneously revealed a massive number of German aircraft lifting off several Calais
airfields headed for London. Hitler was determined to erase the final British military obstacles
to his capture and occupation of the demi-paradise and achieve his dream of air and sea control
of the English deep, wide channel. For that, Field Marshal Hermann Goring, the Fuhrer’s Air
Minister and Chief of the Luftwaffe, needed a number of German aerial blockades. The Royal
Air Force had to be decimated quickly, one way or another. That summer of 1940, the prized
Luftwaffe had to absolutely, unequivocally win air superiority from as far north as the Shetlands
to the southern shores of Plymouth and all of Cornwall.
AN ENTHRALLING HISTORICAL STUDY SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON A HITHERTO UNREVEALED TOP-
SECRET BRITISH ANTI-GERMAN INVASION PLAN IN PLACE AND READY TO BE UNLEASHED ON
AUGUST 13 th OF 1940 WHEN OUR CLOSEST ALLY STOOD ALONE AGAINST A TIDE OF HITLER’S
MOST ELITE ARMED FORCES. FORTUNATELY FOR US, AND WESTERN CIVILIZATION, BY
SEPTEMBER 17, HITLER POSTPONED HIS OVERWHELMING “OPERATION SEALION”, FEARFUL OF
HEAVY LOSSES, AND SWIVELLED TOWARDS MOSCOW. THE NONPAREIL 264-PAGER, “FORTRESS
BRITAIN 1940”, HOT OFF THE PRESSES OF THE MATCHLESS WORLD WAR II CASEMATE
PUBLISHERS, SHATTERS NEARLY 85 YEARS OF MYTHS FOCUSING ON THE HEROIC DEFENCES OF
THE BRITISH ISLES DURING THOSE DANGEROUS FIVE WEEKS.
Reviewed and highly, highly recommend without reservation or qualification by Don DeNevi
“FORTRESS BRITAIN 1940 – – Britain’s Unsung and Secret Defences on Land, Sea and In the Air”,
by Andrew Chatterton, Foreword by Dan Snow. CASEMATE PUBLISHERS Pennsylvania; 2024,
264 pages, hardcover, 6 ¼” x 9 ¼”, $32.95. Visit, www.casematepublishers.com, or Email:
casemate@casematepublishers.com.
In short, Operation “Sea Lion”, was never realized operationally because of several reasons,
its result five years later being the Fuhrer placing his small Walther P-38 semi-automatic pistol
barrel in his mouth and blowing a sizeable hole in the back of his skull. With the famed RAF
systematically defying being cleansed from the skies throughout that August, September, and
October, Hitler was dreaming of crushing Stalin’s U.S.S.R. armed forces. Other than select
Luftwaffe units left behind on the French coast to bomb Britain daily, all German fighting men,
other than the police battalions in occupied countries, were ordered to the Eastern Front for
Operation Barbarossa, the massive invasion of Russia scheduled for June 22, 1941.
“FORTRESS BRITAIN 1940”, via a lot of hard, excessively scrupulous and systematic
investigations and studies, conclude that at first Britain failed to believe and accept Hitler ‘s
promise he would quickly grab the islands, then, just as quickly take Russia, no more than a
rotten, broken down, dilapidated old shack. Lulled into false security by that winter of waiting
and shadowboxing, the British people had come to believe that the German campaign in the
West was a “phony war” and would remain so. Most civilians hoped, wanted, and believed all
was a mere continuation of the old comforting peace-time delusion that Hitler was bluffing and
all he wanted to do was simply announce Britain was his, sail over, and have his SS units take
over the government without firing a shot. British Field Marshal Viscount Alanbrooke argued,
“It may seem ‘phony’ to those comfortably established at home, but it’s anything but ‘phony’.
To find myself in command of a formation unready for war, both from the point of training,
equipment, and deficiency of modern weapons; to be confronted with plans which were
definitely unsound in the event of attack; to become daily less and less confident of the fighting
value of one’s allies; and on top of it all, to have the firm conviction that the Germans must
attack sooner or later . . .” Such were the insights and thoughts of Alanbrooke in the early
months of 1940. “The Germans will definitely not remain indefinitely passive”.
So, YES, Britain was supposed to be alone, unprepared and weak in 1940. But Andrew
Chatterton’s serious research proved a different reality, one that was unequivocally accurate:
Britain WAS prepared, even more than the Field Marshal knew. On land, sea and in the air,
Britain was defiantly ready. It had the most powerful navy in the world; the RAF was relatively
strong, but more importantly, was operating as part of a plan and a join-up group system that
was in truth never in any real danger of being defeated. Even the post-Dunkirk British Army was
better armed than the post WWII authors led us to believe. These forces were backed up by the
Home Guard, to say nothing of the thousands of men and women in secret roles (city, village,
country) to help fight the invasion. No one knew until recently that if all went wrong, and the
Nazis had defeated the British military, a separate, highly secret civilian group was ready to
become active only after the occupation had started.
Thus, Casemate Publishers have placed in our hands a new history that assess and announce
that British forces and secret civilian organizations were heavily armed and ready in the
thousands to fight off the German invasion. Hitler was in for a huge surprise. It would have
been a concerted nationwide effort. Such an amazing plan, almost lost after World War II, lay
buried until now.