Why was operation sea lion postponed?

Answer 1

Operation Sea Lion was the planned German invasion of Britain. To have any chance of victory, Germany would firstly need air and naval control over the English Channel. In order to cross the channel the Germans needed to meet 3 conditions. They needed control of the sea and of the air and they needed the tides in their favor. At no point in the war were Germany in this position. Adolf Hitler cancelled Operation Sea Lion because the leader of the Luftwaffe, which was the German air force (led by Herman Goering) convinced Hitler that his air force could bring Great Britain to its knees, and Hitler believed him.

In the invasion of Norway, Germany suffered considerable losses within their small navy. They had also lost the pocket Battleship Graf Spee at the end of 1939, so in order to keep the Royal Navy out of the chanel they had to control the sky above completely.

Time was not on their side because their makeshift invasion fleet of river barges would not be able to navigate the channel after the last favorable tide before winter.

By mid September it was clear that they had not caused significant damage to the RAF and by losing the air battle, the sea and land battles could not commence.