Sure; not the equivalent of a German field army in the 20th Century, but about the same as a reinforced division, but with much less artillery.
Well, the whole force in the Ålands might have been over 17,000, but I'd hazard a guess that the part of it that finally went as far as the shores of Sweden proper did not number more than 6000 or, say, the similar numbers that crossed the ice at Umeå. This is conjecture on my part, as I don't have sources for the exact numbers, but as supply was an issue, I think sending anything like the whole force across from Åland would have been too much of a gamble. Now, I am sure someone on the forum has more information about the attack than I do, and coud correct me if I am wrong.
EDIT: I in fact found a reference that Bagration ordered his subordinate, general Kulnev, "to occupy Grisslehamn with 400 cossacks" (
here, page 183). We might read this to mean that only a small detachment of Bagration's troops in fact went all the way to Sweden while most stayed in the Åland area.
Pretty impressive operation, however, for 1808; one would expect a specially trained and equipped force could have quite an impact in the right theater.
Best,
I do agree here, the operation and its execution was quite impressive. It does show that one could do such an attack with limited forces even in the early 19th century, but it also points towards the fact that such an attack would not work as a large scale invasion but could only fulfill limited objectives.
Yes, in 1940 the Red Army could successfully attack with infantry and light armor across at most 10 km of very strong ice on a body of water of limited size during a very cold winter above the 60th parallel north. But it would be quite different to do such a large-scale attack over an actual sea area (like the Gulf of Finland) and especially anywhere to the south of the northern Baltic Sea.
One other successful attack across the ice during WWII was the Finnish operation to retake the island of Suursaari (Gogland), 40 km from the Finnish mainland, in March 1942. For that battle, 3500 Finnish troops were brought by trucks and horses across the ice to about 10-20 km from the island during the night to achieve a surprise. The air temperature was around -5. The over 700 horses used were camouflaged with white sheets and most of the soldiers' gear was painted white. The last five kilometers were advanced on skis. The island was attacked from all sides to avoid any breakouts. The Finns successfully took over the island from the Soviet garrison of about 500 men. The Finns had artillery (20 guns) and air support while the Soviet defenders lacked artillery.
Here, again, we have a limited force successfully carrying out an operation across the ice to achieve a limited objective. During a very cold winter in the northern Baltic Sea. In such conditions and with light troops, it is doable.
Incidentally, after the war the Finnish Defence Forces put some effort into developing a particular type of mines that would be used to break sea or lake ice to stop the enemy (read: the Soviets) from doing a similar kind of attack in the future. I think that, in a pinch, a post-WWI military might well rig airplane-dropped naval mines or, say, depth charges for the very same purpose.
Good thing for me the defenders in my plan are rather lacking in troops and heavy weapons.
Great, now you only have to address the several other problems with the idea.
