Thursday, February 14, 2008
paratroopers at crete
Hitler and the German high command commited several mistakes throughout the war. After the presentation on the invasion of Crete , I couldn't help but think seizing to use airborne infantry was one one them- and how the allies and axis both took away different lessons on paratroopers from Crete. Where the German's saw the negatives, that allies saw the positives in attacks from the air. What impact could German paratroopers have had on the war if they had remained truly airborne soldiers and made more combat drops in later fighting?
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5 comments:
If crete never happened then i wonder if hitlers invasion of russia would have gone differently. it seems as though if it were more of an air raid things would have gone differently in russian against the read army, because the only way to combat mass population is by air strike, and if hitler would have succeeded against stalin things would have been much different.
I think that if the Germans had just reworked their use of paratroopers rather than scrapping them all together many changes in the war could have taken place. Paratroopers would have still allowed for a large element of surprise. The German army's mistake was landing the paratroopers directly above the Allies rather than a little further away. When you are floating slowly towards the ground you make yourself an easy target, so why not land further away and sneak up on the soldiers on foot instead? There would still be a stealth entry into the warzone .
It is an interesting thought as to what would have happened had the Germans beefed up their use of paratroopers. On Crete, time was of the essence, so it is phenomenal to think that they put together an air campaign quickly and were able to do the damage they did. Just imagine what Hitler and his gang could have done had they pursued the use of airborne soldiers.
The use of paratroopers could have really altered things for both sides. If the Germans had dropped the paratroopers further away like, Matt said they could have gained some advantages over the allied forces. This would have also allowed them to invade quicker and more successfully.
Paratroopers were successful in Crete, granted the Germans could have changed some minor details to improve them. Hitler could have utilized the paratrooper very succesfully on the eastern front I think, but he just failed to see that.
In response to what Matt said I think that the "fog of war" had a lot to do with where some of the paratroopers were dropped i.e. aircraft speed and direction, wind direction, ect. I think the Germans dropped thier troops directly over the objectives because the Allies were going to see the paratroopers either way so maybe they were hoping for that one less minute for the Allies to react, but I would not have wanted to been a German paratrooper floating over fortified Ally airfields.
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