A Hypothetical Napoleonic Invasion of Britain - Operation "Lion of the Sea"

Welcome to my Project!

I’ve been slowly collecting some information on the proposed Invasion of Britain for a while now and I might as well put it in project form. A local retailer (Mighty Ape) had a sale recently and I picked up a few British minis (Three of the Warlord Peninsular British Starter Sets) which means that once they’re done I’ll finally be able to bring part of the project to the tabletop.

The Main Rule for me is that I Will not be changing History, I will not be teleportating people where they need to be, I will not be moving entire Regiments, I will not be replacing Commanders and I will not be having people act against their own Character.

In fact as you’ll see later I have a complete list of the British Army and it’s Disposition at the time of a Proposed French Invasion thanks to some truly dedicated people over at

http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Britain/Infantry/Regiments/c_InfantryregimentsIntro.html

That picture is actually taken from the period. The British media and some of the public were indeed worried about an invasion not just from the sea but from the air. Rumors of French Balloons capable of carrying entire companies in giant flying boats were common in papers at the time along with cartoons like this one.

The crazy part is Napoleon himself actually planned to use Balloons in his Invasion!

He appointed the Worlds First Air Force Commander (at least from what I can tell) one Mrs. Sophie Blanchard the wife of a famous French balloonist who had become quite famous herself and would go on to be the “Aeronaut of the Official Festivals” for both the Emperor and the King.

Her Husband had the distinction of being the First man to ever cross the English Channel by Hot Air balloon.

Okay so we’ve got Media/Public hysteria but now we actually need some Balloons so:

A) Did the French Have Balloons?

B) Could they have had Balloons?

C) How Many Balloons?

D) How Many People Could be Transported?

E) Is any Crossing of the English Channel Via Balloon Possible?

F) What Would the Military Purpose of Sending Men Via Balloon be?

G) What would the Balloons Look Like?

Okay let’s answer the Questions.

A) Short Answer. No. The French had abandoned their Hot Air Balloon Program in 1799 when Admiral nelson destroyed them all in Egypt.

B) Sure if the Balloon Program had not been abandoned and enough resource put into it the French could have had Balloons ready for the Invasion.

C) This is just pure guess work but I’m going to say Fifty. More than that is too many and less makes it not worth while.

D) This is very tricky. After some Maths and Internet Searching it looks like a Balloon of the Era could transport about five or six men. With Equipment I’m going to stick with Five Men per Balloon.

E) Yes, well it’s been done but it’s not very safe at all. Any Crossing Attempt is going to suffer a lot of Casualties.

F) Honestly mostly just Propaganda. They could possibly be used to scare the enemy into thinking more men had landed via balloon. If the French really ramped up the propaganda about an airborne invasion then the week before they launch their main attack they could drop a few hundred balloonists in fancy Balloonist Uniforms into Britain and have them dispersed around the countryside spreading rumors of thousands of balloons landing tens of thousands of men could send the British into a Panic.

G) Similar to what we think a Hot Air Balloon looks like, turns out the design has not changed much.

So French balloonists have landed in Britain but if you just land Regular French Soldiers in Regular French Uniforms you’re not going to get the biggest reaction possible.

If instead you landed incredibly ornately dressed soldiers with a lot of Prestige behind them with stropping mustaches who are armed to the teeth with very fancy weapons, that’s a different story.

If the Average British Person knows that the French Balloonists are dressed to the Nines and very elite then when they spot them, which won’t be hard since you aren’t trying to hide them, they’ll spread the word far and wide even if all they see is a small handful of men.

Landing at Night would also spread the Men out enough to create a wide area that reports can flood in from.