FAE used at Stalingrad/Leningrad

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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Deleted member 1487

What if the German military was able to use fuel air explosives in the confines of either Stalingrad or Leningrad?
Here is a little information to let you all know what this weapon does in an urban enviornment: (also these weapons are used as bunker busters and anti-mine and armor devises)
Units are far more concentrated in a city fight than when deployed in the countryside. Therefore, a thermobaric strike on a unit in an urban fight is likely to be very bloody. Those personnel caught directly under the aerosol cloud will die from the flame or overpressure. For those on the periphery of the strike, the injuries can be severe. Burns, broken bones, contusions from flying debris and blindness may result. Further, the crushing injuries from the overpressure can create air embolism within blood vessels, concussions, multiple internal hemorrhages in the liver and spleen, collapsed lungs, rupture of the eardrums and displacement of the eyes from their sockets.18 Displacement and tearing of internal organs can lead to peritonitus. Most military medics are well trained in stopping the bleeding, protecting the wound and treating for shock. Many of the injuries caused by thermobaric weapons are internal and may not be initially noticed by the medic or doctor.
Medical units will have to practice triage in treating thermobaric casualties. Thermobaric detonations will create three "zones" of injury. The first is the central zone where most will die immediately from blast overpressure and thermal injuries. Casualties in the second zone will survive the initial blast and burns, but will have extensive burns and those internal injuries listed above. From a medical stand point, some second zone casualties might be able to be saved with extensive care and sufficient resources, but, in reality, between the resources required and the low salvage rate, little can be done beyond providing morphine and other pain relief. In the third zone, patients will have had some protection from flying debris, but may have experienced some blast effect. Kevlar armor may protect soldiers from lethal missile injuries, but not from the blast effect. Surprisingly, many of the patients with internal injuries will survive and do reasonably well providing that acute hemorrhaging is stopped, perforated bowels are sealed off and long-term care provided. Although eardrum examination is not part of a typical field medic/corpsmen exam, looking at the eardrums can tell a lot. If there is fluid or blood behind the eardrums, it is a very good clinical predictor of late pulmonary complications from blast injuries. Most of the injuries are caused from the pressure wave passing a tissue/fluid-air interface. That's why the bulk of the thermobaric injuries are pulmonary or gut (air filled viscous organs).
Injuries to the extremities and eyes will be common in the third zone. Simply using goggles, safety glasses or protective face shields can prevent many of these eye injuries. Burns will also be usual in the third zone. Burn care training and treatment will need special emphasis when preparing for combat where thermobaric weapons may be employed.

After that pretty little image, what effect would it have had on the ability of the Russians to resist the storming of the cities?
 
How do the Germans get them at this point in time? In OTL if they had them they probably would have used them so how do the get them? And if the Germans do have them, whats to stop the other countries from getting them? Things would probably have been a lot worse, especially if the various combatants had used them in their bombing campaigns against cities.
 
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Deleted member 1487

Vigorous handwaving? Seriously, it was not a difficult weapon to produce and disturbingly could be cheaper than conventional explosives. Basically it could be produced at that time, it just needed to be conceived of.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_air_explosive

Basically I am saying that they are developed at a latter stage of the war and are employed from '42 on. To develop it the allies would need to understand that it was not a conventonal explosive and its employment exclusively (at first) in the east would delay it from being developed by the west. But if they do, then God help the Germans!
 
Actually while FAE are simple weapons systems in theory,In practice the era of solid state electronics make it possible to produce the timing triggers necessary for proper propogation to take place before actual detonation. Vacumn tube electronics do not have the capability to produce the timing necessary to achieve a true FAE.Not mentioning that you would need a Gigant to lift it and only with heavy modification would the AC be capable of doing so. The original BLU needed a C-130 to deploy it and wasn't invented until 20 years after WW2.

To achieve this in the 40's would almost require ASB interference. Though with modern electronics you can whip one up in minutes with the right components.
 

Deleted member 1487

For the large boms you are correct, but for the smaller ones, the aircraft of that era would be sufficient to carry. The wiki article made it seem as though the fuse for the bomb is lit when it is dropped, which seems doable at that time, otherwise why would a timed fuse not work?
 
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