Looking at Clippers Zeppelins in another post I was wondering if the Germans could have used them as troop transports for an invasion of England? Would that have been technically feasible chaps?
I wonder if ???
Looking at Clippers Zeppelins in another post I was wondering if the Germans could have used them as troop transports for an invasion of England? Would that have been technically feasible chaps?
No where near the carrying capability to carry more than a couple of squads each. Not that pre-war sensationalist publishing didn't predict just that. those that weren't predicting the total destruction of London in a single raid
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
I suppose that they could have dropped spies by parachute. Landing would have been a problem without a waiting ground crew.
A commando type raid would have been interesting.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
"The Eagle has Landed"?Originally Posted by Flying Officer Kyte
Karl
It is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he thinks he knows. -- Epictetus
I'm sure if you have the bomb load for the given Zep and the average weight of a fully equipped Sturm trooper you could work out how many men you could attempt to land - not much more than a squad per bird maybe & the first intro of fast roping maybe ?!
Exactly."The Eagle has Landed"?
Karl
An attempt to kidnap David Lloyd George!
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Maybe they'd use a zep line????the first intro of fast roping maybe ?!
No, the sausage has landed..."The Eagle has Landed"?
Karl
Voilŕ le soleil d'Austerlitz!
I just knew there was going to be a down side to this thread.
Rob.
"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."
Given the typical Stosstrupp loadout, figure 175-180 lbs. (tho' IIRC, in this case, most of that is ammo and an absolute metric f***ton of grenades). If they didn't have to walk very far, they could probably up that to 200-210 (the practical upper-limit for foot-infantry), and grenade-spam on the way down.I'm sure if you have the bomb load for the given Zep and the average weight of a fully equipped Sturm trooper you could work out how many men you could attempt to land - not much more than a squad per bird maybe & the first intro of fast roping maybe ?!
Since bombloads of zeps varied, it's hard to come up with hard-and-fast numbers -- one of the later types carried something like 3,500 lbs. of bombs, so assuming a 200-lb. loadout, that's 17 men. Not a huge number, really; certainly not enough for anything besides a glorified raid.
And probably a One Way Trip for the Kaiser's Elite, at that. Zeppelins are *HUGE* and vulnerable especially at low altitude--you'd want to descend just low enough to land paras then skedaddle back to the Vaterland PDQ. Landing to retrieve or even fastrope debarkation would take too long, and unless your paras are crosstrained as groundcrew you need that many more personnel dropped who have to lay low until you send another ship... you do not just send highly trained and very EXPENSIVELY so personnel on One Way Trips unless you're sacrificing them to take out an objective of much greater military value.
Better to recruit a "Dirty Dozen" of expendables from the prisons, offer a pardon to any man who completes the objectives and makes it back to the coast. Maybe Zeppelin in/U-boat out.
Thank God the Germans never went with that we would've had all sorts of Riff Raff descending from the skies over good old mother England
Linz
Or a "Three Kings/A-Team/Goldfinger" style mission to go after the gold reserves... "By the way, we'll let you guys keep a percentage of whatever enemy gold/precious metals/assets of value make it to Berlin."
That's assuming any of them even make it to England....
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks