German airborne invasion of Britain

[Archibald]

Geez, reading this thread (notably the 2000 submarine thing) I had an idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Bien_Bridge
Also known as: the Paul Doumer Bridge.
Or: U.S Air Force worse nightmare.

It happened that Gustave Eiffel structures proved immune to conventional bombing. Think about Barne Willis geodetic structure, but applied to bridge and not to Vickers aircrafts. Good luck destroying it.
Of course the Luftwaffe knows about the geodetic structure since they shot a great bumber of Wellington bombers.
It took the first laser guided bombs in history to destroy the damn bridge, on May 10, 1972.

Eureka! Since the Germans have invaded France (and Paris) they have the knowledge; they can build a giant Eiffel geodetic bridge across the Channel so that the panzers can cross... and without laser guided bombs, the RAF can't destroy the bridge.

 

[MattII]

You really think so? The Copenhagen raid seems to have been successful enough to be (though with tragic collateral damage).

 

[Moglwi]

This thread reminds me of Tom Kratmans invasion idea that he keeps talking about writing basicly his POD is some bright spark works out in May that the UK is real enamy and convinces Hitler to launch a airboren invasion so a week later becouse ter germans anr uberplanners they land in kent with 2 divisons then the rest come across mind you this included using He111 as transport to carry over 88's to deal with british armour. Last I heard it had been scaled back to a raid

 

[Astrodragon]

Geez, reading this thread (notably the 2000 submarine thing) I had an idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Bien_Bridge
Also known as: the Paul Doumer Bridge.
Or: U.S Air Force worse nightmare.

It happened that Gustave Eiffel structures proved immune to conventional bombing. Think about Barne Willis geodetic structure, but applied to bridge and not to Vickers aircrafts. Good luck destroying it.
Of course the Luftwaffe knows about the geodetic structure since they shot a great bumber of Wellington bombers.
It took the first laser guided bombs in history to destroy the damn bridge, on May 10, 1972.

Eureka! Since the Germans have invaded France (and Paris) they have the knowledge; they can build a giant Eiffel geodetic bridge across the Channel so that the panzers can cross... and without laser guided bombs, the RAF can't destroy the bridge.

Conventional bombing perhaps.

Grand Slam would do the 'hangmans drop' on its supports without too many problems...

 

[dgharis]

Geez, reading this thread (notably the 2000 submarine thing) I had an idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Bien_Bridge
Also known as: the Paul Doumer Bridge.
Or: U.S Air Force worse nightmare.

It happened that Gustave Eiffel structures proved immune to conventional bombing. Think about Barne Willis geodetic structure, but applied to bridge and not to Vickers aircrafts. Good luck destroying it.
Of course the Luftwaffe knows about the geodetic structure since they shot a great bumber of Wellington bombers.
It took the first laser guided bombs in history to destroy the damn bridge, on May 10, 1972.

Eureka! Since the Germans have invaded France (and Paris) they have the knowledge; they can build a giant Eiffel geodetic bridge across the Channel so that the panzers can cross... and without laser guided bombs, the RAF can't destroy the bridge.

And you're going to bridge 19 miles of Channel, in places as much as 50m deep, while the Brits amuse themselves shooting up your construction crews with their air and naval forces? Even without opposition it's going to take several years to finish; in wartime, forget it.

 

[MN.Gruber06]

I’d just assumed that WW2 paratroopers trained for this by being randomly dropped in training and then building ad-hoc squads on the fly.

They did, and still do. The concept of mass forced vertical envelopment at the scale we saw in Sicily, Salerno and North Africa, however, made this a requirement and a necessity more than it did an actually trained tactic, and these operations didn't happen until 1942/1943, well beyond Germany's window to conduct an airborne invasion of Britain. Remember that by that time, only the UK and U.S. had the resources available to launch airborne operations at this scale, and thus were the only ones to learn through trial and error on how to make them more efficient, as because they were such a new concept, doctrine could only be written and rewritten through experience. The U.S., for example, upon learning of the aforementioned tactic's effectiveness in that it provided an ability to secure objectives and key terrain without assembling massive formations of men after essentially pushing squads of them out of a moving airplane, was well noticed. The previous doctrine of airborne operations (including the one practiced by the Germans) had called for jumping, landing, assembling, and then moving out. By '44 and '45 the "assembling" portion had essentially been placed after the "moving out" portion. The only way to learn that this was more effective was through trial and error, and by 1940 Germany had hardly accumulated enough trial and error in order to make their airborne doctrine more efficient.

 

[Kongzilla]

Operation Seagull

 

[phx1138]

Assuming, of course, that the British just sit and watch the show.

That would actually be the optimum strategy. Round them up in ones & twos & fives & tens as they land...

And meanwhile, let the Germans burn avgas they really can't afford to be pouring down the drain...

wondering whether the Titanic could have been kept afloat by a bucket brigade.

You don't need a bucket brigade. I have one word for you (no, not "plastics"): mattresses. If they'd stuffed the hole with mattresses, they could've pumped her out. Or even used a bucket brigade.

(Finding an iceberg big enough to hole Britain could be problematic, tho. )

I don't suppose the Germans could have built a floating causeway out of Pykrete...? (Why not keep this thread as crackpot as possible?)

 

[MattII]

A big wood/ice causeway? The British gave up on the whole 'set fire to the sea' idea because the waves made it unworkable, take away the waves and burning oil is back in.

 

[Archibald]

You really think so? The Copenhagen raid seems to have been successful enough to be (though with tragic collateral damage).

I was joking

 

[Dan]

(Finding an iceberg big enough to hole Britain could be problematic, tho. )

"Mein Fuhrer, we have come up with a new plan to defeat the dastardly British as their weak willed decadent American Allies. Often we have heard of England called the unsinkable aircraft carrier, well, we intend to put that to the test by crashing an iceberg into it"
"Look bud, I know I'm insane, I invaded Russia AND declared war on the United States, my insanity credentials are well established, but seriously dude, this is too nuts even for me. How were you going to find an ice berg big enough, and how the fudge were you going to get it there? Stick rockets on it"?
"well, I admit, there are some teething problems, but we have this idea for using aquatic mammals of the Otariidae genus..."
"Take this idiot away and shoot him". Hitler, aside to himself, "Sea Lions? Really, what moron would think of that"?

 

[King Augeas]

And you're going to bridge 19 miles of Channel, in places as much as 50m deep, while the Brits amuse themselves shooting up your construction crews with their air and naval forces? Even without opposition it's going to take several years to finish; in wartime, forget it.

Clearly the answer is use construction crews comprised of bomb-proof geodesic robots.

 

[Richter von Manthofen]

One thing people tend to forget...

Btringing troops to the shore is just one part of an invasion

keeping them supported is another question.

So assume Germany has won the BoB (they even came near that - then started terror bombing)

Assume you surprise teh RN and land a first wave + airborne invasion of key places (say the mentionen 6000 paratroopers)

Those troops suck up so much support (food ammo, fuel whatever) that it is simply impossible to keep them in fighting conditions for long

You then need a German Dunkirk to save them

Operation Airlion - i think it is even worse tha Sealion...

 

[jmc247]

Air drops in 1940 to send in commando teams for certain missions might have made some military sense for Germany.

 

[Gunnarnz]

Air drops in 1940 to send in commando teams for certain missions might have made some military sense for Germany.

It does raise the question of how you expect to get them out again. It's probably not impossible - the RAF did exactly that in reverse, with Lysanders and other aircraft - but bloody hard to extract even a platoon-size unit in the wake of an attack.

 

[ModernKiwi]

E-Boats/S-Boats maybe?

 

[Alex1guy]

And you're going to bridge 19 miles of Channel, in places as much as 50m deep, while the Brits amuse themselves shooting up your construction crews with their air and naval forces? Even without opposition it's going to take several years to finish; in wartime, forget it.

This. The Brit's aren't going to sit there twiddling their thumbs while you slowly build a 30km bridge to try and tank rush them. Even if you managed to get to England, then what? Drive the tanks and infantry over? It would be like running a gauntlet from naval vessels, aircraft and the British Units who are going to set up like a bloody shooting gallery.

 

[Gunnarnz]

E-Boats/S-Boats maybe?

Hmm, good idea. You could almost write a book about that; a daring group of Fallschirmjager parachuted into England for a raid and to be extracted by S-Boat. Of course, it would have to be for a really important objective - killing Churchill, perhaps.

 

[Michele]

Hmm, good idea. You could almost write a book about that; a daring group of Fallschirmjager parachuted into England for a raid and to be extracted by S-Boat. Of course, it would have to be for a really important objective - killing Churchill, perhaps.

Written there, filmed that. The Eagle Has Landed.

 

[lucaswillen05]

Airborne troops need to be resupplied and reinforced by ground forces. If not they will run outof ammunition and supplies within a few days. Consider Crete (a near German disaster) and Arnhem. The only possibility of the USM working is if the Germans decisively win the Battle of Britain annd can keep the Channe clear of the Royal Navy to get a couple of Panzer Divisions over and THEN keep the Wehrmacht supplied long enough to force a Brii=tish surrender. In the very unlikely. In event this can be done it would be a bloody and close run campaign

Sorry but bump.