What if Operation Eisenhammer/Iron Hammer was launched?

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Darthmalgus
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What if Operation Eisenhammer/Iron Hammer was launched?

#1

Post by Darthmalgus » 08 Oct 2017, 15:12

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?

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SpicyJuan
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Re: What if Operation Eisenhammer/Iron Hammer was launched?

#2

Post by SpicyJuan » 09 Oct 2017, 04:33

Who know's? A much more interesting scenario is if Eisenhammer is launched a few years earlier (most likely with Whiff aircraft)


NeoVisionist
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Re: What if Operation Eisenhammer/Iron Hammer was launched?

#3

Post by NeoVisionist » 09 Oct 2017, 20:03

The "Winterballon" were similar but designed to punch first through ice. If Eisenhammer is successfully executed in the winter of 41 with the Germans bogged down near Moscow and facing Stalin's finest, it means more lend lease for the Soviets in 42, in turn providing more targets for U boats and KM ships in the Arctic. Less T34 tanks in 1942, more American fayre. The Russian air defences would be stepped up, perhaps with Wallied radar tech.

How were the Soviets paying the Americans for all this gear? Do they have more of whatever it was they needed in order to recieve more goodies from Uncle Sam?

The big questions are A: having the foresight to abandon any ideas about kicking in the door and sending the whole rotten structure crashing down, and so preparing a coup de grace for Stalin's industry right when he needs it the most, well in advance of Barbarossa, and of course B: actually having the capacity, the planes, to fly these gadgets to their targets accurately without it becoming a suicide mission due to the appalling winter winds, cloud cover and enemy aircraft. Also C: having the reserves and logistics, not to mention the strategic acument, to exploit the opening, if not in winter 41 (it's true that stockpiling cold weather gear for the troops would have helped alert the Russians to the invasion, therefore an energetic "for our sons this Christmas" campaign no later than August when German civilians would still be willing to part with their furs would have saved many fighting men) then in spring 42.

Luftwaffe planners might not have forseen their initial crushing success against the red air force ahead of time, but in the event the perfect time was the winter of 41. It still doesn't lead to a Soviet collapse; they'll repair and replace their turbines and generators by winter 42, whatever the cost. They'll lose even more men, but Stalin couldn't care less.

thaddeus_c
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Re: What if Operation Eisenhammer/Iron Hammer was launched?

#4

Post by thaddeus_c » 11 Oct 2017, 13:00

think the problem is they never settled on a strategy of whether to capture and exploit Soviet resources or scorched earth?

my understanding the fallback position of bombing hydroelectric plants was to strike Rybinsk and Uglich dams only and cause flooding in and around Moscow, other than more misery for general population not sure the effects?

if it disrupted the rail hub centered in Moscow it would have been cheap alternative to assaulting the city, even more productive if flooding stalled supply line to Leningrad (a close run thing by early 1942 as to whether that city could survive.)

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