Operation Eisenhammer

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stg 44
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Operation Eisenhammer

#1

Post by stg 44 » 28 Mar 2015, 21:32

Does anyone have any info about this planned attack?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eisenhammer
Operation Eisenhammer (German; in English Operation Iron Hammer) was a planned strategic bombing operation against power generators near Moscow and Gorky in the Soviet Union which was planned by Nazi Germany during World War II but eventually abandoned.
The plan of the operation was created in 1943 by Professor Heinrich Steinmann (1899–1969), an official at the Reich Air Ministry. A bombing raid was to destroy twelve turbines in water and steam power-plants near Moscow, Gorky, Tula, Stalinogorsk and under the Rybinsk Reservoir, as well as to attack certain substations, transmission lines and factories. If the attack were to succeed in destroying just two thirds of the turbines it would have knocked out about 75 percent of the power used by the Soviet defence industry. Only two smaller energy centers behind the Urals and in the Soviet Far East would have been left intact. At this time the Soviet Union had no turbine manufacturing capabilities and the only repair facility (in Leningrad) had been heavily damaged.
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.
Due to the shortage of bombers and fuel, technical problems with the floating mine, and the Red Army overrunning advance bases, the plan was postponed repeatedly. In February 1945, however, Eisenhammer was resurrected, and Kampfgeschwader 200 assembled scout planes and about 100 Mistels near Berlin and waited for favourable weather to attack the plants around Moscow. After a US air raid on the primary Rechlin Erprobungstelle military aviation test headquarters facility, which destroyed 18 Mistels, the plan was postponed again and shortly afterwards finally dropped.

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#2

Post by thaddeus_c » 29 Mar 2015, 05:57

have not found a mention of (any )attempts on the Volkhov Hydroelectric Plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkhov_Hy ... ic_Station while the German army was near.

that dam also controls the level of Lake Ilmen which flows into Lake Ladoga and Neva River to (then) Leningrad.

on the Finnish side were two dams (and hydroelectric plants) on Svir River controlling flow from Lake Onega to Ladoga to Leningrad.

considering the flooding that always has plagued Leningrad was any attempt made to use the dams to flood the city? (not been able to find any information on that.)

(my question being, beyond loss of power, what were flood control aspects to the dam system)


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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#3

Post by Niklas68 » 29 Mar 2015, 16:18

Interesting stuff, tbh had never heard of those plans. Enticed by your post I read up on this whole Mistel bomber thing and apparently they accomplished some minor success using the Mistel bombers over the English channel in June 1944 sinking a few units.

They did manage to bomb Gorki in Mid 1943 of course, using He 111 bombers, hitting the Molotov Tank Plants several times, on a different note.

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#4

Post by stg 44 » 29 Mar 2015, 17:25

Niklas68 wrote:Interesting stuff, tbh had never heard of those plans. Enticed by your post I read up on this whole Mistel bomber thing and apparently they accomplished some minor success using the Mistel bombers over the English channel in June 1944 sinking a few units.

They did manage to bomb Gorki in Mid 1943 of course, using He 111 bombers, hitting the Molotov Tank Plants several times, on a different note.
There were in fact several raids from 1941-43 on Gorki:
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pu ... RM6206.pdf

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#5

Post by Niklas68 » 29 Mar 2015, 19:56

There were indeed several raids, I believe up to six of them, though to my knowledge all of them occurred in Mid 1943.

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stg 44
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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#6

Post by stg 44 » 29 Mar 2015, 21:16


Niklas68
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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#7

Post by Niklas68 » 29 Mar 2015, 22:44

:lol:

what's that supposed to prove?
By any means do not expect people to be able to speak Russian even if by the looks of it you seem to have a grasp of the language.

PS
I take it the source says there were indeed raids on Gorki prior to 1943, but even if that's the case you should translate the relevant passages or even better find a western source (english language based, that is) for it

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#8

Post by stg 44 » 29 Mar 2015, 23:11

google translate works pretty well on the article detailing raids starting in 1941 and culminating in 1943.
The serious problem is lack of english language sources on the air war in the East. Even German language sources have gaps due to records being destroyed or locked up in Soviet archives, while Russian language sources are inaccessable linguistically or info is locked in archives and won't be released to western historians.

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#9

Post by Niklas68 » 29 Mar 2015, 23:23

Have to take your word for it as I ve never encountered reports about raids on Gorki prior to 1943, neither in German nor english and it seems you can't provide one either. All reports I read about German strategic bombing in the east mentioned the time frame June of 1943 with regards to the bombing of tank plants in Gorki.

Anyways, we ve gone astray a little as interesting as it surely was, seeing the purpose of your thread was to discuss something different.

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#10

Post by stg 44 » 29 Mar 2015, 23:50

The RAND article mentions the Gorki raids, the wikipedia article does too, and the Richard Muller book "The German Air War in Russia" also does.

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#11

Post by Niklas68 » 29 Mar 2015, 23:59

Just found the passage in the rand report, you re right, Gorki amongst other cities got hit in 1941 by some "weak attacks" or a few"erratic" bombing missions "without significance" that "hadn't even prompted evacuation of war industry from the target towns". As far as I can see there is no mention of further attacks on the city until the main event which was june of 1943, so no strategic bombing effect accomplished prior to Mid 1943, that's why hardly anyone heard of this, but you re right they apparently did attack Gorki in 1941.

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#12

Post by randwick » 29 Apr 2015, 11:05

.
Leningrad flooding is usually the result of tidal surge , recently a barrier has been erected to prevent this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg_Dam

it is attributed to the geography , St Petersburg is located at the end of an East West narrow gulf creating an oscillating wave
where the Earth Coriolis force , tidal effect and prevailing winds create an oscillation which eventually surge over the land
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seiche
there is a similar problem in Venice when the winds and tides push a surge from the Adriatic
bad weather doesn't help by having the drainage basin already flooded

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#13

Post by thaddeus_c » 02 May 2015, 14:35

randwick wrote:.
Leningrad flooding is usually the result of tidal surge , recently a barrier has been erected to prevent this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petersburg_Dam

there is a similar problem in Venice when the winds and tides push a surge from the Adriatic
bad weather doesn't help by having the drainage basin already flooded
my point (or actually question) was if Volkhov Hydroelectric Station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkhov_Hy ... ic_Station destroyed (or captured and opened) the surge flows into Lake Ladoga to Neva River to Leningrad (or that path)

or does this hamper Axis operations more than threaten Leningrad?

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#14

Post by randwick » 05 May 2015, 00:13

.
beside making the city even more miserable , probably nothing much , both the Soviets and the Army group North were in static position
flooding usually work to the advantage of the defender , for the Germans to flood before an attack would probably be silly
the Soviets might have done it if they were in danger of loosing the place but Hitler orders were very strict , starve the place

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Re: Operation Eisenhammer

#15

Post by thaddeus_c » 06 May 2015, 06:32

randwick wrote:.
beside making the city even more miserable , probably nothing much , both the Soviets and the Army group North were in static position
flooding usually work to the advantage of the defender , for the Germans to flood before an attack would probably be silly
the Soviets might have done it if they were in danger of loosing the place but Hitler orders were very strict , starve the place
flooding AROUND a position would tend to favor the defender, not sure 2, 3, ? feet of water IN Leningrad helps?

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