successful Operation Eisenhammer?

What if it had been done in conjunction with Barbarossa?

Weren't there some plans along those lines? some of the Brandenburgers?

Ivan
 

mowque

Banned
They didn't have the planes to really bring off any grand campign past what they did in OTL. And if they did have them they'd have been lost in the Battle of Britain anyway...
 
What if it had been done in conjunction with Barbarossa?

Weren't there some plans along those lines? some of the Brandenburgers?

Ivan

You think the Brandenburgers could have pulled it off? Could probably be a bit easier with those
They didn't have the planes to really bring off any grand campign past what they did in OTL. And if they did have them they'd have been lost in the Battle of Britain anyway...

I wouldnt have thought they needed much in terms of airpower? At this stage of the war didnt the germans have pretty much air superiority or take out much of the Soviet airforce already?

According to wiki this was the plan:
A bombing raid was to destroy twelve turbines in water and steam power-plants near Moscow, Gorky, Tula, Stalinogorsk and under the Rybinsk Reservoir, as well as to attack certain substations, transmission lines and factories. If the attack were to succeed in destroying just two thirds of the turbines it would have knocked out about 75 percent of the power used by the Soviet defence industry. Only two smaller energy centers behind the Urals and in the Soviet Far East would have been left intact. At this time the Soviet Union had no turbine manufacturing capabilities and the only repair facility (in Leningrad) had been heavily damaged.

If they used a few Mistel long range bombers as the page says, what sort of damage could they cause to the turbines? Even if we assume this is a 1 way trip, I expect there could be a fair amount of damage done even if only partially successful.
 
Despite the claims of Bomber Harris, Bomb Bomb LeMay, Spaatz and the rest of the air power crew strategic bombing did not appreciably reduce the output of German or Japanese facilities. Simply put air power was not accurate enough. They viewed success as putting 25% of the bombs within a mile of the target. While the Germans could have been lucky I do not think they would have been successful with a single raid and after the 1st raid the Soviets would make sure they overwhelmed any more raids.
 
I could imagine some type of Skorzeny raid, but typically, those Special Operation things were not particular successful anyway.

... But it would make for a good movie (Clint Eastwood as a "Brandenburger" instead of Burton's assistant in Where eagles dare).

Knocking out turbines and other heavy equipment might not be achieved with only one Mistrel attack. Those things are spread out over a bigger area.

In essence, Germany need the Ural bomber with some "tall boy" capability and for a sustained number of raids.

Possible in 1943? not really

1944? no

1941? No, because they did not have the planes with long legs and with a sufficient bomb load.

That again gets back to Brandenburgers (damn, I could see Clint in that uniform!)

Ivan
 
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