What if operation Eisenhammer/Iron Hammer was launched?

Operation Eisenhammer was planned as a powerful air attack by the Luftwaffe with approx. 80 S2 Mistel-bomber combinations (Fw 190/Ju 88) against the electricity generation system of Russia. The weak point of the Soviet armament production factories in the Moscow and Gorky areas was the lack of manufacturing capacity to produce turbines for the steam and hydroelectric generating stations. Much of the equipment in use seems orginally to have been bought from Germany before the war. If the power stations could have been put out of actions, large sections of the Soviet industry would have been forced to cease work until the turbines could be replaced or repaired, according to the German planners. Eisenhammer was originally planned for the spring of 1944, but due to the loss of airfields for the involved German He-111-bombers in Western Russia postponed. In December 1944 the operation was revived (this time to be executed by Mistel-combinations), expanded in scope and rescheduled for the following spring (in March 1945). Targets were the dozen steam and hydro-electric power stations around Moscow, including those at Tula, Stalinogorsk and Gorsky, also to be attacked were the dam and turbine installations at Rybinsk to the north-east of Moscow, if the dam were breached it was estimated that the level of the Wolga would rise by several feet and cause severe flooding of the Wolga basin. The Mistel combinations were to take off from airfields in East Prussia after dark and attack their targets at first light the following morning. Pathfinders would fly ahead of the Mistels, dropping flares to mark the route to the targets. Other pathfinders would drop flares to illuminate the targets for attack.

According to Wikipedia"'To accomplish the goal Mistel long-range bombers were to be employed. To destroy water turbines special floating mines called Sommerballon ("summer balloon") were to be dropped into the water and then pulled by the current straight into the turbines.' Not sure how this fits into the employment of Mistel combinations, but okay.

After the mission the surviving Fw 190s would land on airfields in the Courland pocket in Lithuania. This information comes out of the book 'The last year of the Luftwaffe May 1944 to May 1945' by Alfred Price. This is not the only source that mentions this operation.

Quite an operation and planned in all earnest. What if this operation was launched in March 1945 as planned? It wouldn't have delayed the inevitable for Germany, but could it have inflicted the by the Germans expected damage on the Soviet industry?
 
Eisenhammer was a pipe dream, up there with Hitler moving fantasy divisions around the map during the last days of the Third Reich. The damage it was designed to inflict would have arguably been unfeasible for the RAF or the USAAF to pull off, two sides with large fleets of heavy bombers who were used to the doctrine of strategic bombing, even if the VVS allowed them to just get on with it. For the Luftwaffe to attempt such an operation in the Spring of 1945, totally unable to defend the skies over Germany, and largely grounded due to a lack of pilots, fuel, and spare parts, would only be a waste of Germany's increasingly scant resources.
 
Also the Mistel was grossly inaccurate, if you lobbed all 80 aircraft at ONE target, then you might accomplish something that wasn't just "What the bloody hell was that explosion a few miles away?" being said by guards or civilians.
 
Eisenhammer was a pipe dream, up there with Hitler moving fantasy divisions around the map during the last days of the Third Reich. The damage it was designed to inflict would have arguably been unfeasible for the RAF or the USAAF to pull off, two sides with large fleets of heavy bombers who were used to the doctrine of strategic bombing, even if the VVS allowed them to just get on with it. For the Luftwaffe to attempt such an operation in the Spring of 1945, totally unable to defend the skies over Germany, and largely grounded due to a lack of pilots, fuel, and spare parts, would only be a waste of Germany's increasingly scant resources.

Well, they seem to have been prepared to waste those resources on this operation, at least for a time. Fantasy or not, it was almost launched, had it not been for the necessity of attacking the Vistula bridges. According to Price the crews for Eisenhammer received detailed briefings at the end of March and stood-to each evening, awaiting the executive order to launch the operation. Then suddenly the operation was cancelled. But what if it was launched? Would they have been able to reach their targets? Were the targets heavily defended or as unsuspecting as the Germans assumed? What would have been the impact in case part of the attack would have been succesful? Were these targets as vulnerable as the Germans made out?
 
Operation Eisenhammer was planned as a powerful air attack by the Luftwaffe with approx. 80 S2 Mistel-bomber combinations (Fw 190/Ju 88) against the electricity generation system of Russia. The weak point of the Soviet armament production factories in the Moscow and Gorky areas was the lack of manufacturing capacity to produce turbines for the steam and hydroelectric generating stations. Much of the equipment in use seems orginally to have been bought from Germany before the war. If the power stations could have been put out of actions, large sections of the Soviet industry would have been forced to cease work until the turbines could be replaced or repaired, according to the German planners. Eisenhammer was originally planned for the spring of 1944, but due to the loss of airfields for the involved German He-111-bombers in Western Russia postponed. In December 1944 the operation was revived (this time to be executed by Mistel-combinations), expanded in scope and rescheduled for the following spring (in March 1945). Targets were the dozen steam and hydro-electric power stations around Moscow, including those at Tula, Stalinogorsk and Gorsky, also to be attacked were the dam and turbine installations at Rybinsk to the north-east of Moscow, if the dam were breached it was estimated that the level of the Wolga would rise by several feet and cause severe flooding of the Wolga basin. The Mistel combinations were to take off from airfields in East Prussia after dark and attack their targets at first light the following morning. Pathfinders would fly ahead of the Mistels, dropping flares to mark the route to the targets. Other pathfinders would drop flares to illuminate the targets for attack.

According to Wikipedia"'To accomplish the goal Mistel long-range bombers were to be employed. To destroy water turbines special floating mines called Sommerballon ("summer balloon") were to be dropped into the water and then pulled by the current straight into the turbines.' Not sure how this fits into the employment of Mistel combinations, but okay.

After the mission the surviving Fw 190s would land on airfields in the Courland pocket in Lithuania. This information comes out of the book 'The last year of the Luftwaffe May 1944 to May 1945' by Alfred Price. This is not the only source that mentions this operation.

Quite an operation and planned in all earnest. What if this operation was launched in March 1945 as planned? It wouldn't have delayed the inevitable for Germany, but could it have inflicted the by the Germans expected damage on the Soviet industry?

Did the Soviets not have radar? Would they not launch interceptors against the bombers?
 

Deleted member 94680

Well, they seem to have been prepared to waste those resources on this operation, at least for a time.

For the Nazis, it would appear resources allocated didn’t necessarily correspond directly to chances of success.

Fantasy or not, it was almost launched, had it not been for the necessity of attacking the Vistula bridges.

The, largely unsuccessful, attacks on the Vistula bridgeheads were launched in April ‘45. Iron Hammer was initially planned in ‘43. That’s a long spell of delays and postponments. There must be reasons this supposedly decisive operation was put off for so long.

According to Price the crews for Eisenhammer received detailed briefings at the end of March and stood-to each evening, awaiting the executive order to launch the operation. Then suddenly the operation was cancelled. But what if it was launched? Would they have been able to reach their targets? Were the targets heavily defended or as unsuspecting as the Germans assumed? What would have been the impact in case part of the attack would have been succesful? Were these targets as vulnerable as the Germans made out?

Probably not. German intelligence about Soviet defensive arrangements was pretty poor, especially the longer the war went on.
 
The, largely unsuccessful, attacks on the Vistula bridgeheads were launched in April ‘45. Iron Hammer was initially planned in ‘43. That’s a long spell of delays and postponments. There must be reasons this supposedly decisive operation was put off for so long.

my understanding on the subject it was delayed because of general indecision over whether to capture and exploit resources (of every kind) or adopt scorched earth policy.

the fallback option even in initial plan was to bomb Rybinsk-Uglich dams to cause flooding, even if Mistels had been conceived prior to invasion the question would be whether they would attempt to flood Moscow and surrounding area when it was thought possible or likely they could capture it?

maybe by spring of 1942? a concerted effort might have disrupted Soviet transportation around Moscow hub.
 
According to Robert Forsyth's book on the Mistel, there were 'aerial pictures taken from all directions and in all kinds of weather, as well as a three-dimensional model of the surrounding landscape'. So the Germans must have had some kind of impression of the strength of the Soviet AA defence around the targets. The Luftwaffe probably used Ju-290's for obtaining these aerial pictures and these planes could reach pretty far, even in 1944. The reason for postponing Ironhammer seems to have been caused more by fuel shortage and other logistical problems (which were solved after a while), than a lack of faith in the succes of the missions. The operation would have been carried out during the night, so that would have hindered the Soviet air force in intercepting the Luftwaffe. Soviet radar wasn't on the same level as that of Germany or Britain, so it's role would have been quite limited, I think. A surprise attack would have been hard to achieve though, since the German formations had to fly a long distance over Soviet held territory on their way to their targets.
 
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