Barbarossa 1st day question

What could have been hit on the first day of Barbarossa but wasn't, or what could have been hit harder?

Basically, I am writing a story where there is an additional elite and practically inviincible group of paratroops and the only logical use I can see for them is to hit something important and hit it hard. There's not much point aiming for Moscow since the transports would be shot down, or even being practically invincible, sheer weight of numbers would overwhelm them.

I'm thinking more in terms of a Soviet army HQ, railhead, communications hub, somewhere that was not hit but perhaps "should" have been had the necessary force been available?

Thanks
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
There's not much point aiming for Moscow since the transports would be shot down, or even being practically invincible, sheer weight of numbers would overwhelm them.

I suggest that you study some logistics before writing your story. You need that, because there are even better reasons not to drop paratroopers, even of the ASBishly invicible sort, over Moscow.
 
I know little but...

why should that stop me? :p Aim for Tallinin (spelling?) or Leningrad; a (kinda) intact port will help AGN with logistics, until Bagration means there is no army anyway...
Sevestapol (spelling again?) is a tough nut, but would save a few months for AGS in reducing it; no idea what else that accomplishes though.
While I am dreaming of making Haig look kindly (is not a butcher), North Africa could use them (I think Manstein in Africa [check with Blairwitch] does that). Cyprus is too far, but if done like Crete means the eastern Med is dangerous for the RN. Despite my username, I am more Philip II of Spain; no idea of war, losing armies, navies, and ruining the country in the name of pride.

Or if you love the Charge of the Light Brigade (glorious fighting, wrecked army, no logic) attack Maikop and Grozny, destroying the oil fields so Russia *might* run out of oil, limiting mobility (no double envelopment of Stalingrad, Bagration etc, so easier retreating for Germany). Of course, others will have better ideas soon enough, and even with my "grand" (bloody) ideas, Germany fails.

But I do want to see a real attempt to solve the OP. I was serious, but logistics, Russian strength, and reality all conspire against me. Good luck to the others.

edit: did not see first day part. In hindsight no idea what to hit; in "Manstein (rules/saves/loves???) the world" has SS dressed as KGB colonels execute generals to cause chaos I believe. In hindsight we know nothing is worth hitting the first few weeks, as the front crumpled. A target in August?
 
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Decapitation strikes were not really a successful WW2 thing, even though there was a plan to kill Mussolini and a sort of a German plan to kill Stalin and Churchill and kidnap Roosevelt during the Teheran conference using Otto Skorzeny people.
OTL the german clandestine agents were rapidly captured by the Brits in Quom, with help from Soviet agents intel.
You can do something of the sort and have some Brandenburgers stage a clandestine op to seize the Kremlin and kill Stalin and his top people. (lots of people would say that was the best help you could give the soviets:cool:)
I suggest Ian Westell's book on the Brandenburgers in Ian Allan Spearhead series as a source for material, names etc
OTL soviet counterintelligence and intelligence agencies were far more capable than the German embryo special forces community could take on...
 
How big is this elite unit?

May 1940 to early 43 the Brandenburgers were a regiment with 3 battalions plus signals, light engineering, etc. each battalion was assigned to one of the AG for Barbarrossa, for in depth operations.
Other than that, you have the usual suspects, paratrooper divisions, various SS colourful units, etc.

Adding a new force to those is a bit too much. For a big op of the Holliwood type, the Branderburgers are the team to call...
 
I think I'm going to drop them on Kiev in July 1941, seems that it could save a lot of time there.

Thanks for the thoughts!

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
For a big op of the Holliwood type, the Branderburgers are the team to call...

Were they not those troops dressed in Soviet uniforms and transported in coal train cars? If the movie Battle for Moscow is to be believed, and I am led to believe it was rather historically based. Thus Brandenburgers are not available, unless Germans give up this operation and use them.

OTOH, dropping paratroops on a CITY? Near the major river? I think this is a recipe for disaster. IMHO the best use would be to secure major bridges by dropping them not too far from those, something along the lines of Operation Market.
 
Were they not those troops dressed in Soviet uniforms and transported in coal train cars? If the movie Battle for Moscow is to be believed, and I am led to believe it was rather historically based. Thus Brandenburgers are not available, unless Germans give up this operation and use them.

OTOH, dropping paratroops on a CITY? Near the major river? I think this is a recipe for disaster. IMHO the best use would be to secure major bridges by dropping them not too far from those, something along the lines of Operation Market.

Like I said, OTL they were fully comited to Barbarossa, doing the kind of missions Spetnaaz units were expected to do if the cold war ever got hot, bridges, etc...
 
edit: did not see first day part. In hindsight no idea what to hit; in "Manstein (rules/saves/loves???) the world" has SS dressed as KGB colonels execute generals to cause chaos I believe.

Really? I am so glad i never read that story, it sounds even sillier than i imagined.
 
Don't send General Rommel and the One Panzer and One Motorized Division(s) to Africa...

Instead...
send Rommel, the two divisions plus a coupla of Infantry Divisions stripped from France and have this Corps available for Army Group North, AGN, for the push towards Leningrad...

If possible, strip a Regiment of Tanks each from two or three Panzer Divisions station in the West in France and create another KampfGruppen of Tanks plus a motorized Regiment and have a composite Tank Brigade available for usage for General Rommel for his own Armoured Corps... :eek:
 

Cook

Banned
Decapitation strikes were not really a successful WW2 thing...
<cough> Reinhard Heydrich <cough>

But yes, you are correct; attacks to eliminate the headquarters of an army or army group wasn’t really a practicable option, although Field Marshal Model did think that was what the British paratroopers descending on Arnhem (just a few kilometres from where he was having his breakfast) were there for.
 
Don't send General Rommel and the One Panzer and One Motorized Division(s) to Africa...

Instead...
send Rommel, the two divisions plus a coupla of Infantry Divisions stripped from France and have this Corps available for Army Group North, AGN, for the push towards Leningrad...

If possible, strip a Regiment of Tanks each from two or three Panzer Divisions station in the West in France and create another KampfGruppen of Tanks plus a motorized Regiment and have a composite Tank Brigade available for usage for General Rommel for his own Armoured Corps... :eek:

You've just effectively knocked Italy out of the war. Thus costing the Germans hundreds of thousands of useful auxiliary troops. And freed up a large number British & Empire troops for operations outside Africa.

The troops sent east are not near enough to have a decisive effect on Barbarossa. The Germans had almost ASB success to start with & still couldn't win.

Nothing they can do will change that, they were simply fighting an oppenent that was out of their league, in war-making potential.
 
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