Preparations were made in Scotland for the feared Nazi invasion of Operation Sealion.

Military top brass feared tens of thousands of German troops could be parachuted into Scotland ahead of a Nazi invasion of the British Isles.

As the Battle of Britain raged across the south coast of England in August 1940, concerns were raised that Scotland would play a key part in the landing of the armed forces of the Third Reich should Britain lose air supremacy.

Hitler had already warned in July that he was preparing a landing operation in England after Britain rejected his final offer of a peace settlement following the fall of France and the Low countries that Spring.

Scotland was already preparing its defences with the Home Forces mobilising volunteers on the coastline from all ports from Newhaven to Peterhead, including Aberdeen and Dundee.

Fortification of the Shetland Isles began along with the deployment of troops following the invasion of Norway and Denmark in May 1940.

By August, top secret briefings were drawn up about the possible approaches of a Nazi invasion, known as Operation Sealion. Scotland, it emerged in declassified documents, was feared to be included in the earliest stages of the plan.

One paper presented to the Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office warned enemy forces could capture RAF airfields at Dyce near Aberdeen, Inverness, Perth, Lossiemouth, Kinloss, Leuchars, Montrose, Evanton near Invergordon ,Wick and six in Orkney and Shetland.

The document dated August 6, was called “German air-borne landings in northern Scotland with a view to the neutralisation of fleet bases as a preliminary to the invasion of England”.

It claimed the Germans could “land in Scotland 20,500 airborne troops during the first three days for the purpose of capturing and holding all the aerodromes north of the Tay”.

It added: “They could subsequently maintain and reinforce these troops by approximately 900 men per day, bringing the total number of airborne troops landed during the first week of operation to 24,000.

“If this is an essential first step in a German invasion of Great Britain, they would be prepared to employ all their resources to ensure that this first step was successful.”

The document crossed the desk of General Alan Brooke, the commander-in-chief of Home Forces.

It stated that 440 parachutists could land on the outskirts of each of the aerodromes, some which may have suffered preliminary bombardment.

The document added: “After releasing their parachutists, transport aircraft would return to bases in Norway, Denmark and Holland to refuel and reload.”

The paper claimed the attack could come “at any moment” with the "most dangerous" time being from August until the end of September.

General Brooke, in his assessment of the papers, said he did not have the troop numbers to offer wholesale cover of Scotland in light of a potential invasion.

While ordering that the harbour at Lerwick should be secured, his preference was to concentrate numbers around the east coast of England in order to protect London.

He wrote: “It is not possible to send and maintain in the Shetlands a garrison which would be proof against a large-scale air and sea-borne operation and I have told the Commander-in-Chief, Scottish Command, that he is to make it a primary objective to secure and hold the port of Lerwick, without which the enemy would also find it difficult to maintain himself.

“The moral and psychological effect of a German occupation of the islands, which are separated by so short a distance from our main fleet anchorage, would be most unfortunate

General Brooke added: “As regards the rest of Scotland, I have only a certain number of troops and I consider it preferable to maintain a preponderance in the East Anglian and the Home Counties for the defence of London.”

By late September, the threat of invasion had diminished following the Battle of Britain. Germany’s failure to overcome the RAF and take control of the English Channel, due largely to its lack of heavy bombers and failure to strike critically important targets, made invasion all but impossible.

Operation Sealion was postponed indefinitely.

VE Day: The Nazi attack on Scotland feared by army commanders

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