hello all, I've been trying to do some research for a short story I'm working on, but I am coming up empty regarding the info I'm trying to find. The short story I'm working on, is a WWII version of "Red Dawn" and takes place in the city of Halifax, NS which was an important departure point for troops and supplies destined for Europe. I'm trying to find info on the kinds of defenses that were here in the city in regards to preventing a German invasion. In the story I won't be using German ships as I know there were mines, sub nets etc to prevent ships from sneaking in, but what I have planned is for the KG-200 to be the main invasion force along with the Fallschrimjager and German engineers, the objective of this mission is to disrupt the flow of materials and troops into Europe and instill fear in the civilians knowing the Germans are in town. If anyone can help me out, I'm not sure where else to turn. I can't find any pictures of the defenses that were around. Thanks!
Well there was this moat that was a couple thousand miles wide and several thousand feet deep ... If you aren't using ships what are you using? No plane they had could carry any significant number of troops that far. An important departure point for troops may not be where you want to try and land anyway.
What I was thinking, was using an airfield located in Norway, which was under German occupation, and they'd be using captured allied transport aircraft to drop the German paras.
From Norway(Trondheim) your looking at just over 3000 miles. C-47s were flown across the Atlantic, but they were "flying gas cans," and not carrying troops, supplies, and assorted equipment - nominal range of a c-47 was about 1,600 miles with a ferry(flying gas can) range of 3,600 miles. So to make this happen, you'd need some long-range flying boats, along with some U-boats serving as "floating" gas stations along the way(as well as calm seas for takeoff and landing). I don't think the Germans had enough Allied long-range flying boats to make anything but a suicidal nuisance raid. As to Halifax military units, you would need to specify a year. September 3, 1939 - Military District 6 - pgs 7-9 http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/939BIBD.pdf April 24, 1943 http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/Canada/CA/SixYears/SixYears-E.html You might also want to check out http://books.google.com/books?id=oLO-a9ThDcsC&lpg=PA252&ots=3DJdbgvfSh&dq=HALIFAX%20FORTRESS%2C%20world%20war%20ii&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false Halifax at War: Searchlights, Squadrons, and Submarines 1939-1945" by William Naftel.
It's implied but the long range "flying gas cans" were carrying fuel instead of any other payload. US planes deploying to Britain stopped in Iceland to refuel and I think took off from Newfoundland at least while flying the northern route. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CFB_Gander and http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/wwii.html
If you don't want to use ships, the most plausible option is flying boats refueled by u-boats in the mid-Atlantic. The Bv-222 might work, but it too would likely need to be refueled if it was carrying a full combat load. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blohm_%26_Voss_BV_222 Still, this wouldn't be much of an 'invasion'. At best, you could have a couple of hundred troops on the ground. Maybe something along the lines of 'Operation Grief' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif) would be better?
If you're looking for a refueling rendezvous, you might consider a remote fiord in Greenland. The Germans maintained weather stations there, and supported them with occasional supply ships, until 1944. They were also reasonably successful in getting supply ships, blockade runners, and raiders into the Atlantic; Clay Blair's Hitler's U-Boat War is a good source for all these operations. A support ship could also transport the troops and their equipment, sparing them one long uncomfortable flight in the BV-222s or whatever. Alternatively, you might hypothesize that Goring does not order the German airships scrapped in 1940. They had the LZ-127 and -130 (both of which used the name Graf Zeppelin) with the -131 under construction. The latter two, sisters to Hindenburg, were designed to accommodate as many as 72 passengers in luxury, with a crew including service staff, so could presumably carry a larger number of troops.
