This is a longshot guys but I am looking for info on the proposed german ops to capture Malta and Gibralter, OOBs or operational guidelines. Anyone got anything???

Also anything on any proposed airborne ops would be good, anything on the Eastern Front???

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"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.

This is interesting but lesser known topic.We´ll see what there is.

Operation Hercules
The original plans for the invasion of Malta were hatched in 1941 and was part of Hitler's grand Mediterranean strategy which included operation Mercury and Felix (discussed below).
The invasion was planned to take place in 1942, with a combined air and sea borne assault. The primary objectives being the airfields that the RAF were using as a base for bombers and attack aircraft to intercept German supply ships destined for North Africa and the resupply of the Afrika Korps.
The airborne assault was to be made by men of the 1st Parachute Division with reinforcements from the 4th & 5th Parachute Regiments under the command of Major von der Heydte. This force was also to include men of the Italian Folgore and Superba airborne division's.
The whole seaborne element of the operation was dependant on ships of the Italian Navy, which had suffered already during the war at the hands of the Royal Navy, at places like Cape Matapan and Cape Spartivento. Hitler believed that they would be reluctant to go into action against them again.
General Kurt Student and Field Marshall Albert Kesselring persuaded Hitler that Malta had to be seized due to the disruption to badly needed supplies destined for North Africa.
Then fate took a hand and Rommels Afrika Korps took Tobruk in June 1942, Hitler then decided to postpone Hercules, not wanting to lose any hard to replace forces.
Hitler was right to call off the operation as coded messages sent by enigma were being intercepted at Bletchley Park, which revealed the plans of operation Hercules and the garrison on Malta was reinforced on June 16th 1942.
Maybe Malta would have become another Crete. Who knows?.....

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Operation Felix
Operation Felix was reliant on General Franco entering the war on the side on the Axis powers. Plans were drawn up in the event of Franco's co-operation with the Germans. This included the capture of Gibraltar, the Canary islands and the Portuguese Cape Verde islands.
Gibraltar was the doorway to the Mediterranean and home to a large Royal Navy fleet, capture Gibraltar and in effect you could shut off the Mediterranean.
The plan called for an attack by Spanish forces from the mainland and a combined german air and sea assault.
As it happened, Franco was very adamant about being drawn into the war, especially after their own civil war in the late thirties.
This plan like many before it was put on the shelf.
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The Baku operation:

Operation Edelweiss
A small part was to be played out by the Fallschirmjäger in the planned army operation, Edelweiss.
This was supposed to take place in the summer of 1942 and the objective was the Baku oil fields in the Caucasus.
Paratroops were to take off from airfields in the Crimea and seize the oil fields until relieved by elements of Army Group South.
Luckily for the Paras a breakthrough elsewhere on the front called for their mobilization and they were not used.

http://www.eagle19.freeserve.co.uk/shelved.htm

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http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/wwii/104-13/104-13.HTM

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The movements of Fallschirmjäger during ww2

http://www.ww2.dk/ground/fallschirm/fjr.htm

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I think this has all the data on German airborne operations one needs to know..

http://www.luftwaffe-hist.demon.co.u...ns%20Frame.htm

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Eisenhower had a lot of planes to use airborne troops to capture vital points, bridges, ... .
But because the advance was so quick, he never used them untill Market garden.

Greetz

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Has general Student any memoirs or books? I think there might be a lot od details for this operations.

And we must remeber that operation was cut off because Hitler was in an important way persuaded by Rommel not to do so. An enormous strategic misconception for the "best general in the world"...

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Friedrich,

agreed on the Malta importance:If Malta had fallen to the Axis powers as had Crete, then the Luftwaffe and the U-Boats would have had the perfect base from which to control the Mediterannean and the ability to supply the Afrika Corps effectively.

But did you notice this in the earlier message?

"Coded messages sent by enigma were being intercepted at Bletchley Park, which revealed the plans of operation Hercules and the garrison on Malta was reinforced on June 16th 1942.
Maybe Malta would have become another Crete?"

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"In March 1941 Ultra revealed that the Germans had induced the Italians into positive action against the British convoys and this resulted in the overwhelming British victory at the Battle of Matapan, which kept the Italian fleet at port for the best part of the war and gave the British command of the Mediterannean sea."

"Intelligence played a much more significant role where supplies were concerned as opposed to land warfare in North Africa; events moved too quickly in the latter for intelligence to be able to distribute its findings whilst their relevance remained."

"Intelligence however brilliant, cannot provide dramatic success where militay strength or preparedness does not exist ."

http://www.topedge.com/panels/ww2/na/intelligence.html

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The allied had an extra weapon, the Ultra. And it worked.I have a feeling it would have caused a nasty surpise to the Germans.

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