3rd Cumulative WW2 History Quiz

[Zardnaar]

What was the operation Donnerkeil (thunderbold)?

Adler

The channel "dash" by the cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau

 

[Adler17]

Well, that´s very near but not exactly. The Channel Dash was called Operation Cerberus.

Adler

 

[Zardnaar]

Well, that´s very near but not exactly. The Channel Dash was called Operation Cerberus.

Adler

The air cover operation by the Luftwaffe for the Channel dash.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Operation thunderbolt is an arcade game.
They had arcades back in WW2 right ????

 

[Zardnaar]

Operation thunderbolt is an arcade game.
They had arcades back in WW2 right ????

From 1988 the sequal to Operation Wolf

 

[Adler17]

Yes. It was the Luftwaffe cover for the ships. Of 242 British planes less than 40 were able to make an attack. No hits were achieved on German ships. 17 German interceptor were shot down while 61 British planes were downed. Zardnaar, your question.

Adler

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes. It was the Luftwaffe cover for the ships. Of 242 British planes less than 40 were able to make an attack. No hits were achieved on German ships. 17 German interceptor were shot down while 61 British planes were downed. Zardnaar, your question.

Adler

It was kind of a tragic day for the RAF. Pilots in obsolete Swordfish bmbers were sent up against ME 109s due to poor management/organisation with no fighter cover. I'll post my question in 10 hours as I have to go to work (6:40 am over here).

 

[Zardnaar]

Heres my question.

What was the last Blitzkrieg of WW2?

 

[cidknee]

stalingrad?

 

[Zardnaar]

stalingrad?

Nope Think sideways a bit more.

 

[Adler17]

Zardnaar, the Swordfishes attacking were downed by the FlaK of the ships. This was a suicide mission. It was amazing how easy the German fleet was able to break through the channel. The Guns of Dover for example opened fire at first when the German ships were out of range. Good timing . And that although the British were aware of such a mission...

Adler

 

[privatehudson]

It wasn't really that amazing, just a combination of sheer bad luck, bad communications and poor weather really. Given that there was only ever 6 swordfish going up against a multitude of German ships it's not logical to expect a result.

Fortunately RAF bomber command got their revenge before the month was out.

 

[Zardnaar]

It wasn't really that amazing, just a combination of sheer bad luck, bad communications and poor weather really. Given that there was only ever 6 swordfish going up against a multitude of German ships it's not logical to expect a result.

Fortunately RAF bomber command got their revenge before the month was out.

Gotta give the Germans some credit for this though. Massive propaganda coup with extremely bad organisation on the British side.

 

[Serutan]

The last attempt on a large scale was Kursk (Jul. 1943).

The last one that had much of an effect was the Ardennes
(Dec 1944).

The last German offensive of any sort was Lake Beloton
(Mar. 1945).

 

[nonconformist]

Not Crete? The last German airborne offensive?
They sustained such heavy Fallscrimjager casualties, they never tried again.

 

[Serutan]

Crete was in 1941. And an airborne assault, not an
armored assault.

 

[nonconformist]

And an airborne assault, not an
armored assault.

But conceivable as "Blitzkrieg" no?
A lot of the Blitzkriegs were supported by aribourner assauls (Belgium for example, Eben Emeal)

 

[privatehudson]

The answer rather depends on how you define blitzkrieg. Co-incidentally, Crete wasn't the last time the Germans supported an offensive with airborne troops, that was the battle of the bulge.

 

[nonconformist]

The answer rather depends on how you define blitzkrieg. Co-incidentally, Crete wasn't the last time the Germans supported an offensive with airborne troops, that was the battle of the bulge.

At the Bulge they weren't used in the airborne role (unless I missed something)

 

[privatehudson]

I wrote an article on the topic actually called the last flight of the eagle. You can find it here

Of course not many troops involved, but then again there was no airborne operations in Poland in 1939 either, so airborne operations are not necessarily the defining factor in the question I'd say.