Now really. You need me to repeat it.
Airborne operations, alone, seldom succeed, only under exceptional circumstances. You need the other half: ground troops that advance quickly and link up, valorizing the key terrain the paratroopers captured.
Ground troops need strength - the one point you seem to be assessing - but also mobility, range, and logistical wherewithal. Points you still don't seem to see.
Also the areas the Fallschirmjager deploy in the Netherlands were watery and they managed to touch down fine and only ran into trouble due to resistance at the drop points being unexpectedly heavy, while the same situation at Crete was an issue, though the paras managed to do fine in the rough mountain terrain.
In terms of the city itself if that was deemed too unfit of terrain, they could deploy to the north/northwest where there is open ground based on the terrain map I posted before.
Yes, you don't see the point. The point isn't just that some terrain is less suitable for paratroopers; but also that some terrain - often the same kind of terrain - isn't suitable for quick, mechanized, armored movements.
Raus was talking about the Luga defense line, which is well south of the area I'm suggesting the paras drop.
Exactly. That's the point. You can have paratroopers behind Krasnogvardeysk. That won't change that the panzers have to cross swampy ground to link up with them.
From Kolobanov's wiki page in English (bold is mine):
At the
Battle of Krasnogvardeysk on 20 August 1941 (part of the
Battle of Leningrad), Kolobanov's unit ambushed a column of German armour. The vanguard of the German
8th,
6th and
1st Panzer Divisions was approaching Krasnogvardeysk (now
Gatchina) near
Leningrad (now St Petersburg), and the only Soviet force available to stop it consisted of five well-hidden KV-1 tanks, dug in within a grove
at the edge of a swamp. KV-1 tank no. 864 was commanded by the leader of this small force, Lieutenant Kolobanov.
The German forces attacked Krasnogvardeysk from three directions. Near Myza Vojskovitsi (German:Wojskowitzy), Seppelevo, Vangostarosta (now Noviy Uchkhoz), Ilkino and Pitkelevo settlements, the geography favoured the Soviet defenders as
the only road in the region passed the swamp, and the defenders commanded this
choke point from their hidden position. Lieutenant Kolobanov had carefully studied the situation and readied his detachment the day before. Each KV-1 tank carried twice the normal amount of ammunition, two-thirds of which were armour-piercing rounds. Kolobanov ordered his other commanders to hold their fire and await orders. He did not want to reveal the size of his force, so only one tank at a time engaged the enemy.
The 6th Panzer Division's vanguard entered directly into the well-prepared Soviet
ambush. The gunner in Kolobanov's KV-1, Andrej Usov, knocked out the leading German tank with its first shot. The German column assumed that the tank had hit an
anti-tank mine and, failing to realize that they were being ambushed, stopped. This gave to Usov the opportunity to destroy the second tank. The Germans realized they were under attack but were unable to locate the origin of the shots. While the German tanks fired blindly, Kolobanov's tank knocked out the trailing German tank, boxing in the entire column.
Although the Germans now knew where they were being attacked from, they could only spot Lieutenant Kolobanov's tank, and now attempted to engage an unseen enemy. The German tanks got
bogged down when they moved off the road onto the
surrounding soft ground making them easy targets. Twenty-two German tanks and two towed
artillery pieces were knocked out by Kolobanov's tank before it ran out of ammunition.
[1] Kolobanov ordered in another KV-1, and 21 more German tanks were destroyed before the half-hour battle ended. A total of 43 German tanks had been destroyed by the five Soviet KV-1s (two more remained in reserve).
For their actions, Lieutenant Kolobanov was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner and Andrej Usov was awarded the
Order of Lenin.
---
This is, may I remind you, the location
you pointed out as
suitable terrain. Now tell me this doesn't echo the situation of XXX Corps on their road to Arnhem.