The Situation of Britain Face to Face with a Nazi N.W Europe – Factors Governing an Invasion

A matter-of-fact assessment of the possibility of German invasion during the summer of 1940.

“For any invasion to succeed, the Navy and the R.A.F. would first have to be definitively overpowered.” – Text, lower right.

This alarming map of a Britain under siege was designed by George Horace Davis and originally published in the June 29, 1940 edition of The Illustrated London News. The image shows numerous approaches for a potential German invasion of the United Kingdom through occupied bases along the English Channel and North Sea coasts. The Nazi menace stretches from Bergen to Brest, with potential reinforcements from Ireland.

The inspiration for such a threatening perspective is shown in an inset in the upper left – a similar map designed in 1934 by Edward Banse in “Germany Prepares for War.” The right side of the sheet visualizes the enormous fleet required to transport the theoretical invading force – an impossible number of ships for the German Navy, even if aerial superiority was achieved.