page_title: Imperial German plans for the invasion of the United Kingdom
section_title: Landing site
hierarchical_section_title: Imperial German plans for the invasion of the United Kingdom / Landing site
caption_attribution_description: English: Landing sites considered suitable during German Empire planning for the invasion of the United Kingdom in the late 19th/early 20th century. Base map is a derivative of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_geographical_counties_1889_with_ridings.svg. Data is sourced from The invasion of the United Kingdom&#160;: public controversy and official planning 1888-1918, a PhD thesis written July 1968 by Howard Roy Moon, pp. 669–670
context_page_description: Imperial German plans for the invasion of the United Kingdom were first conceived in 1897 by Admiral Eduard von Knorr, commander of the Imperial German Navy, against a background of increasing Anglo-German rivalry and German naval expansion. Acknowledging the inferiority of the small German fleet, his concept called for a preemptive strike against the Royal Navy to establish temporary naval supremacy. This would be followed by an immediate landing, before British naval reinforcements re-established command of the sea. Subsequent studies determined that the shortest possible sea-crossing would be a prerequisite for success, requiring the use of port facilities seized in Belgium and the Netherlands to embark the expeditionary force. Reconnaissance of the English east coast was completed and potential landing sites in East Anglia were selected.
  Comments were invited from Alfred von Schlieffen, Chief of the German General Staff, who regarded an invasion to be impractical.
context_section_description: Planners gave detailed consideration to the selection of a landing site. They rejected areas south of Dover due to the concentration of defensive fortifications, and based on the increasing strength of the Dover harbour facilities, they ruled out a landing along the Thames in March 1898. Studies focussed on areas north of the Thames, based on the presence of suitable harbour facilities and their proximity to forts. Harwich was particularly attractive for its capacity to accommodate larger ships, the lack of nearby forts and the ability to protect operations there with mines. Reconnaissance was carried out on the English coast from Orford Ness, Suffolk, to Scarborough, Yorkshire. Four locations were identified as suitable for a landing, based on ease of anchorage and beach approaches, from north to south:
  Flamborough Head, Yorkshire;
  The Humber estuary below Grimsby, Lincolnshire;
  The East Anglian coast from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, to Southwold, Suffolk;
  The Suffolk coast from Southwold to Orford Ness.
  Army planners favoured a location as close as possible to London. Schlieffen concurred with the naval planners' assessment that British coastal defences ruled out a landing south of Orford Ness. He rejected any plan to invade north of the Humber as too far from any worthwhile objective and recommended that planning should be based on a landing between Great Yarmouth and Aldeburgh, Suffolk. During the First World War, this was the area which British defence planners judged to be the most likely invasion route.
caption: Areas identified as suitable landing sites, and other key locations.
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