operation at night

what if hitler drop his highly trained stormtrooper and SS at night to distroy the English air bases at night?
would that have worked?

 

Hitler did have airborne troops during WWII. He used them in Crete and they were successful but had a high casualty rate, about 80% if I remember correctly. This casualty rate was so high that Hitler pretty much decided against ever using them again.

Air drops into England were certainly possible. Highly trained and motivated troops would have been able to cause considerable damage and create a lot of confusion. It would have been a one-way trip though. There would be no hope of getting these men back or of any kind of organized resupply. I don't think even Hitler would have thrown away the manpower it would require to make just a temporary dent in the RAF capability. There would be nothing that the paratroopers could do that could not be repaired or replaced in short order. This would not be decisive unless they were able to take and HOLD objectives, which was not possible.

If their objective was to assault the air bases and kill the pilots, that may have done some more lasting damage, but it would still not be worth it.

 

Hitler's paratroopers and air landing division were pretty much wiped out during the Holland campaign (Fall Gelb)as well. Nothwithstanding, they achieved many of their objectives and might be cinsidered succesful. The number of men and planes (!) lost in thos efive days already signaled the end of the use of German airborne troops in a airlanding capacity. Crete sealed it for good.

Airborne operations are useless unless followed up by a major ground-born offensive backing it up within hours. Maybe give it a day. Airborne troops are lightly armed and need reinforcements very soon. They can only be used to capture key points. Although air superiority is neccesary to win any invasion, I think you shouldnn't count on airborne troops to achieve this in such an unconventional fashion. British airbases were many and scattered. It would have been a major feat to organise the troops to attack all relevant targets. Also need perfect drops to achieve these goals. Any night assault has to deal with a large number of troops being dropped in the wrong place and finding there targets. I think it would have been a shambles....

 

As Stevin has correctly pointed out, a lightly-armed parachute assault without immediate reinforcement is doomed, as the Allies found out at Arnhem.

The Luftwaffe also had enough difficulty trying to find the RAF's airfields during the day, so I don't think they'd have had much of a chance in the dark.

And finally, the one thing the whole of Britain was keyed-up for in 1940 was 'German parachutists' ; if landed they would certainly have spread fear and confusion, but at the same time resistance would have been fierce.

 

you have to parachute with a whole bunch of stuff, cannons, jeeps parachuting alone with just other people is a large risk, unless in LARGE numbers

 

Like that Polish Fighter pilot found out after being downed in The Battle of Britain...

"Good Morning? My Arse!"

 

German didn't need any SS parachutists, they should of continued at quadruple the scale,: the Fernenachtjagd missions and that would of put the end of the RAF in the early stages of the war or set them back so far northward that the unit would of been only partially effective. I am not talking of a what if here. the Ju 88C nf's had the range, the bomb loads although light and the armament, it was the numbers involved which were too low

back to the meds ......

 

The biggest problem facing such a scenario is how do the German transports accurately find their drop zones? The Germans lack any system equivalent to Eureka - Rebecca. Systems such as x-Gerät or Kickebein are succeptable to jamming. So, the question is when dropping at night how do the Germans accurately drop?

 

A high risk operation for something like that to go ahead at night better have a very good reason.

 

Where did you find out that "Hitler's Stormtroopers and SS" were "highly trained"? Especially as paratroops and at night fighting?

Well, unless you go for a fullfledged invasion (Seelöwe discussion again?) at best you can do a few raid pinpricks, which may only work the first time round, if at all. After that your enemy will be ready.

Night fighting in the days before LLTV and thermal imaging was something totally impraticabel, reserved only for SAS type derring-do and propaganda coups.

 

Why not just bomb english airbases from the air if the german aircraft can reach them ?

 

I think you´d also need the fighter cover or the bombers would be downed in numbers that could not be accepted ( the Bf 109 problem with fuel amount ). And like Martin said there was the problem of finding the air fields.

 

Ah, yes, airfields are rather difficult to find from the air by daylight, especially the ones with grass strips. By night, under blackout they are quite impossible to find.

 

Good question if the Germans had nightvision and the no 1 else had it then that would help a lot.

 

They used the Lorenz sets, EBL1 and EBL2 which were used in conjunction with the Knickebein beams.