Editing Operation Sea Lion (section)

== Broad versus narrow front ==
The German Army High Command ({{lang|de|[[Oberkommando des Heeres]]}}, ''OKH'') originally planned an invasion on a vast scale, envisioning landing over forty divisions from [[Dorset]] to [[Kent]]. This was far in excess of what the ''Kriegsmarine'' could supply, and the final plans were more modest, calling for nine divisions to make an [[amphibious assault]] on [[Sussex]] and Kent with around 67,000 men in the first [[echelon formation|echelon]] and a single airborne division of 3,000 men to support them.<ref name=Schenk231>Schenk, p. 231</ref> The chosen invasion sites ran from [[Rottingdean]] in the west to Hythe in the east.

The ''Kriegsmarine'' wanted the front to be as short as possible, as it regarded this as more defensible. Admiral Raeder wanted a front stretching from [[Dover]] to Eastbourne and stressed that shipping between Cherbourg/Le Havre and Dorset would be exposed to attacks from the Royal Navy based in Portsmouth and Plymouth. General Halder rejected this: "From the army's point of view I regard it as complete suicide, I might just as well put the troops that have landed straight through the sausage machine".<ref>Shears, David. ''Operation Sealion'',<!--publisher & place?--> p. 162.</ref>

One complication was the tidal flow in the [[English Channel]], where high water moves from west to east, with high water at [[Lyme Regis]] occurring around six hours before it reaches Dover. If all the landings were to be made at high water across a broad front, they would have to be made at different times along different parts of the coast, with the landings in Dover being made six hours after any landings in Dorset and thus losing the element of surprise. If the landings were to be made at the same time, methods would have to be devised to disembark men, vehicles and supplies at all states of the tide. That was another reason to favour landing craft.