Airborne assault in Operation Barbarossa

Deleted member 1487

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&u=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%25D0%259E%25D0%25B1%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BD%25D0%25B0_%25D0%25A0%25D0%25B8%25D0%25B3%25D0%25B8&usg=ALkJrhjKHVVAlWBBCDnkJXeNBfKJh48Lyw

Defense of Riga. There was a lot of retreating through the city and a lot of attempts to rise up that were put down. If the Germans get in their first wave of parachutists, which should number over 6k thanks to the number of transports involved, they would be able to rush the city within a couple hours of the landing and take advantage of the locals being against the Soviets because defenses didn't start getting organized until the 25th. So by noon the city should be in full revolt once the first several thousand Germans march in. There is no mobilized defenders and the 2nd wave and later can hold the East side of the city against the late coming NKVD. No militia is able to be raised like IOTL. When the retreating Soviet troops start arriving on the 27th and 28th, two days before the arrival of German ground troops historically, they will run into a city held by at least 15k paras that have been organizing defenses and local help since the 22nd. IOTL there was a lot of fighting in the city leading up to the OTL German capture of it, so there would be a lot of local help once the Germans arrive and that would check the disordered, mauled retreating Soviets that historically had a habit of surrendering once surrounded in 1941-42.

https://translate.googleusercontent..._voini&usg=ALkJrhhD6hQocKZMSRABjBUG5DtquB4Pag
Mobilization of reserves didn't even start until the 23rd.
 

Deleted member 1487

So open question to the forum: how badly messed up would the Soviets have been on the path to Leningrad by having their Northwest Front HQ captured and having a major supply artery and airbase lost on day 1 of Barbarossa?
 

Deleted member 1487

Not really. The 11th and 8th Armies were largely routed eastward instead of withdrawing that way under orders. Estonia wasn't really seriously defended by the Soviets and the Germans pretty much walked through the Baltic States as it was. I'm not seeing that much difference.
Reading Glantz's "Barbarossa" he says Kuznetsov, Northwest Front's commander, was passing down orders to withdraw to the 8th and 11th armies starting on the 26th when Manstein reached the Dvina and organized the 27th army to counter attack Manstein.
On June 30 Kuznetsov was replaced with the 8th army's commander after his failures.

If the German paras take Riga on day 1 and pretty much get their three infantry regiments dropped by nightfall and organized, at least two regiments before the 5th NKVD regiment shows up, Northwest Front HQ is taken and the NKVD is beat off while the AAA unit in Riga is destroyed, the city rises up and nearby airbases are taken allowing supplies to be flown in regularly along with the full weight of the division and probably the 22nd airlanding division. So by the 25th there is two full divisions in the city fully deployed and the city secured by Latvians and Germans with defenses set up against all angles of attack backed by artillery, both German and captured Soviet.

In the meantime the Soviet armies have no coordination until STAVKA can figure out what's up and promote 8th army to Front command, probably not before the 28th of June. They are worse off than IOTL because of the lack of coordination until Moscow manages to get things set; by then probably most of 8th army is trapped and wiped out because they cannot use Riga to retreat and the major crossings are pretty much gone by the 28th. Some units of course filter across elsewhere, but not in OTL numbers, as Riga was the major crossing point for 8th army in its retreat into Estonia. That means when the German 18th army moves into Estonia it faces very little resistance and by the end of July it will have cleared it and moved into Russia via Narwa, rather than taking until September. The clearing of the Baltic islands can begin sooner and supply can really move ahead much faster with the ports opened months sooner. Plus there are two divisions (7th FJ and 22nd) extra available months earlier that can move into the swampy areas around Leningrad and do well there based on their training, while providing critical support that was absent IOTL, in addition to early 18th army infantry forces that showed up there in September rather than late July. Really there should cause the fall of Leningrad in July-August 1941.
 
... Kuznetsov, Northwest Front's commander...

If the German paras take Riga on day 1 .... Northwest Front HQ is taken .... and the city secured by Latvians and Germans with defenses set up against all angles of attack .... the Soviet armies have no coordination until STAVKA can figure out what's up and promote 8th army to Front command, ....


All that and the rest of it sounds like a possibility, tho there are a couple outcomes that can offset the initial advantages. One is a battle in Riga from the 22d percipitates much earlier retreat by the Soviet forces from Lithuania & Latavia. Second is that a large mass or directionless soviet soldiers tirns into a pocket ot multiple pockets that require a week to reduce and clear the roads & railways.

All that may still be a good outcome. Lots of pros & cons & variables.

Step 1.
Add a naval component to the operation and go for the Baltic Islands on day 1.

I've started a thread on this one myself, and followed a similar one elsewhere. There are pros & cons to a early operation against a Baltic port or Talanin as well

Step 6
Use naval dominance to land supplies and infantry close to the panzer spearheads

This seems to be the best goal. To establsih a supply base as far forward & as near Lenningrad as practical. Tallin area may be the optimal place.


Lack of experience in large scale amphib ops is the biggest problem. This includes rapidly clearing lanes through any minefields off the Balitc coast, and the need to get a corps size landing force ashore swiftly to reinforce the air borne element. After that there is a huge logistics effort, not only to support the corps size airborne/amphib corps, but some 250,000 tons in the next 30 days to support the German army/s in attacking Lenningrad.
 

Deleted member 1487

All that and the rest of it sounds like a possibility, tho there are a couple outcomes that can offset the initial advantages. One is a battle in Riga from the 22d percipitates much earlier retreat by the Soviet forces from Lithuania & Latavia. Second is that a large mass or directionless soviet soldiers tirns into a pocket ot multiple pockets that require a week to reduce and clear the roads & railways.

All that may still be a good outcome. Lots of pros & cons & variables.
Maybe a couple of extra days, but much more likely they just surrender when they realize there is no exit; also units in combat wouldn't realize quickly enough Riga was gone if the HQ is taken down take quickly and disengage and move there more quickly than IOTL, as they started arriving 5 days into the invasion after being defeated in the field. They probably get scooped up even quicker because of the huge disordered caused by the loss of Front HQ and supply via Riga and panic causes them to surrender rather than get into the fight. IIRC besides being attacked they had to get orders to get the freedom to fight authorized by Moscow considering the restrictive ROE. The whole thing would be a cluster-F on the Soviet side. As it was mostly 8th army is affected and they were about 5 rifle divisions that were hammered hard and a Mechanized Corps that was destroyed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Raseiniai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_Army_(Soviet_Union)#Eastern_Front
So its extremely unlikely they would take any more than a day or two extra once cut off from retreat at Riga and fighting their route out cut off they'd probably surrender rather than resist to the bitter end. That subtracts the 5 divisions and MC by June 30th.

Not trying to dismiss your points, its just the Soviets were so weak that this would pretty much be the end of 8th army and be so disruptive to Northwest Front that it would effectively collapse resistance West of the Dvina due to the disorder it would cause.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Heavy casualties in the battle of Crete meant that large scale airborne assaults were no longer feasible. What if the airborne assault on Crete was cancelled for some reason and the Fallschirmjager were dropped into the USSR in the opening hours of Operation Barbarossa

According to our beloved Wikipedia, the Axis advance was stalled by the Soviet 18th army between the Prut and Dniester Rivers. I assumed that the airborne assualt would prevent the advance from being stalled. So it might be possible for the Axis to be in an even better position.

Well this makes it easy.
Essentially you have to link up with your Paras at worse 3 days after landing so
figure out where you will be in 3 days and you can see what they could grab and hold be then.
 
Top