SsgtC
Banned
Shouldn't that have detonated her magazine?The bomb punched through the B turret roof and exploded two decks down.
Shouldn't that have detonated her magazine?The bomb punched through the B turret roof and exploded two decks down.
The ship was hit by a glide bomb, the angle of penetration would have a considerable horizontal component. The magazine would be directly below the turret.Shouldn't that have detonated her magazine?
The Germans have another option. Their FJ units haven't been much misused lately, and they were able to drop them on Sicily in OTL's campaign.
Their FJ were chewed up in Barbarossa and the few ready brigades went to Greece as a fast reinforcement against ODIN.When did the Germans do any drops in Sicily? The fallschirmjagers saw plenty of fighting in Italy, but I'm pretty sure it was all purely ground-based, except for the Mussolini mission.
You just gave me a wonderfully wicked idea for a war game scenario. 😈ISTR in OTL the FJ were tasked with reinforcing Sicily and jumped during the allied invasions as the quickest way to get there. I could be mistaking this for Torch where one of the UK airborne drops was aborted when they saw FJ jumping on their own objective to reinforce it.
You evil, evil man, you!
When did the Germans do any drops in Sicily? The fallschirmjagers saw plenty of fighting in Italy, but I'm pretty sure it was all purely ground-based, except for the Mussolini mission.
There's a good account of the deployment in Martin Pöppel's Heaven & Hell: The War Diary of a German Paratrooper.ISTR in OTL the FJ were tasked with reinforcing Sicily and jumped during the allied invasions as the quickest way to get there. I could be mistaking this for Torch where one of the UK airborne drops was aborted when they saw FJ jumping on their own objective to reinforce it.
The Allies need to make contact with the Alpini units and arrange airdrops of SOE or OSS radio and demo teams, to assist. Radio teams can bring allied air support, and Demo teams, additional explosives . Take out the bridges as necessary, after the fighting they are the easiest to repair.
The Allies need to make contact with the Alpini units and arrange airdrops of SOE or OSS radio and demo teams, to assist. Radio teams can bring allied air support, and Demo teams, additional explosives . Take out the bridges as necessary, after the fighting they are the easiest to repair.
I think the expertise of SOE and OSS in demolitions is overrated. Experienced miners could do the job just as easily. Regular italian engineer units would have such miners. Trendino and South Tyrol had a lot of active mines back then. They can get explosives from there. Worst case senario a few artillery shells can do the job as well. The SOE/OSS agents would be better deployed in Yugoslavia or northern Greece. Their expertise lies not in their abillity to blow up a bridge but in operating behind enemy lines.
Get whoever you can with those skills to the Pass ASAP.
Theoretically the Germans can get in Italy through France and Yugoslavia but neither are that easy as the Italians control those entry points too.Guys take a look here
Rail Operations Over the Brenner Pass
books.google.nl
The Brenner to Verona line passes through 90 bridges, 30 viaducts and a double digit number of tunnels. There is no chance in hell the Germans can pass even with limited resistance. They would need to capture every single bridge and viaduct intact and avoid all kind of traps in the Alps. Moreover, it seems they deal with Alpini: the best trained units in the italian army that have been trained specifically to fight in the Alps. All the panzers in the world are not much of a help in the Alps against such a foe. On the other hand, the Allies are a couple hours away (Corsica) from Genova, La Spezia and Livorno. There are two prizes: Rome as the seat of government and MIlan as the industrial heart. The Allies are much much closer to both.
Yugoslavia is probably the best bet for the Germans if they can't take control of Northern Italy right away. France is really limited to a handful of mountain passes, with only marginally better terrain than the Brenner.
The Alpini have organic engineer and demolition units up there that would have the necessary explosives available. Depending on the year the bridges and tunnels were built, they could have built in “mining” pans/chambers built into their designs to enable them to demolish it. They could even had been filled with the explosives over a short time to have them ready to set off on a short notice.Indeed! The Italian have also a corps in southern France. The Germans have to first capture/destroy the corps and only then they can start crossing the Alps.
Regarding Yugoslavia the question is Ljubljana as it is the main hub towards Italy. The Italians are already in control of the city. If they sabotage the marshalling yard there and a couple of bridges around the city they postpone the invasion by a few days. Then the Germans have to capture intact all the viaducts and bridges up to Trieste. The line's viaducts were OTL targets of the partizans (source http://www.znaci.net/00001/179.pdf). After the Germans pass through the Ljubljana gap and reach Trieste then they have to cross a number of rivers, among which Isonzo is the most famous. More bridges then. So, the only way to rush to Italy despite italian resistance would have been with very large fully motorized units that include many engineer units and material for a dozen main bridges. Somehow I doubt they could provide such a mobile army at this point, when they have to zerg rush the Balkans as well and southern France east of the Rhone. My guess would be that we may see a front along the OTL Po or Adige lines. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...europe_map_italy_june_until_december_1944.jpg
The only other viable line is the OTL Gothic Line but between the Allies in Corsica/Sardinia and an active italian resistance, well, it seems that ship has sailed.