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But I'm willing to be an armchair general and take a whack at it.
The axis powers for 2 straight weeks day and night use incendiaries and heavy ordinance to bomb Gb to try and deprive the defenders of sleep.
On the final day a German captured allied ship filled with fuel docks in the main harbor.
A few hours later at dusk an emergency message is sent from 2 twin-engine cargo aircraft that they are under attack and need to make an emergency landing – one of them visibly has an engine on fire. They are Jewish scientists (or somebody else) who have escaped with their wives and families from Vichy France. Pursuers turn around and the aircraft land on the runway. Out step German soldiers discussed as women and old men.
At that point, the "allied ship" is detonated and either explodes or at least burns fiercely hopefully blinding AA gunners and lighting the way for the Germans. Soldiers from the 2 cargo aircraft pour out and secure the airport/runway.
Paratroopers start to land and reinforce the troops already there (I've seen Gb and I do think it's possible to land paratroopers there). Then Gliders proceed to land.
What's left of the harbor is now secured. Additional troops are landed via cargo U-Boats filled with men and equipment.
The main German troop ships that were waiting nearby in Spanish harbors disguised as neutrals now set sail and arrive within a half hour.
without Spain in the war, the naval option becomes pretty much impossible. If the Axis attack the Vichy assets, then the remains of the french fleet, and the French North African garrisons become allied assets, which makes the defence of gibraltar very easy.
The only way that the italians and the germans could approach the issue, without Spain in the war, is to risk a Naval assault from distant bases. For Italy that means Naples or at best Cagliari. For the Germans it initialy means Kiel, assuming a succesful breakout it then means a sortie from one of the French Ports (Brest, Lorient or St Nazaire....Bordeaux is not suitable as a port of departure).
For both Navies (Italian and German) a long ocean crossing is fraught with danger, to which the addition of the Luftwaffe has very limited compensations. For most of their respective voyages they will be without effective aircover, during which time both would be subjected to the full force of the RN, including carrier based airstrikes. The italians in particular had no stomach for this, and the Germans had also demonstrated that without effective aircover or supporting screen, their fleet was very vulnerable.
An whilst it might be possible to undertake a sea denial strategy (tip and run tactics, high speed bombardments perhaps), this is not the strategy that would be needed to take Gib. Sea Control is what is needed, that is, to move to an area, ensure total control of that sea area, and then undertake a prolonged assault bombardment, before sending in the amphibious forces. Something akin to Iwo or Okinawa in other words. This was totally beyond the ability of either axis Navy to achieve. They lacked the strength to eject the RN presence for a start, and even lacked the necessary skills training and doctrine, or know how to undertake such a complicated naval strategy. We are taliking 16000 defenders in heavily fortified positions here......at Iwo it took 110000 of the best Marines in the world 25 days to subdue 18000 defenders, how on earth are the Axis going to get that many men to the target safely, hold off what can only be assumed as ferocious attacks by the RN and get their people safely ashore only after having dealt with the coastal guns first.
It is just totally unfeasible to consider an attack on the fortress without Spanish assistance.
I would do an amphibious/airborne attack on Gibraltar. The French, Italians and Germans had been bombing them so range IMO is not critical
IIRC correctly the Italians bombed Gib with the Piaggiao P108's
also with S.M. 82
without Spain in the war, the naval option becomes pretty much impossible. If the Axis attack the Vichy assets, then the remains of the french fleet, and the French North African garrisons become allied assets, which makes the defence of gibraltar very easy.
The only way that the italians and the germans could approach the issue, without Spain in the war, is to risk a Naval assault from distant bases. For Italy that means Naples or at best Cagliari. For the Germans it initialy means Kiel, assuming a succesful breakout it then means a sortie from one of the French Ports (Brest, Lorient or St Nazaire....Bordeaux is not suitable as a port of departure).
For both Navies (Italian and German) a long ocean crossing is fraught with danger, to which the addition of the Luftwaffe has very limited compensations. For most of their respective voyages they will be without effective aircover, during which time both would be subjected to the full force of the RN, including carrier based airstrikes. The italians in particular had no stomach for this, and the Germans had also demonstrated that without effective aircover or supporting screen, their fleet was very vulnerable.
On those occasions that the Italians had been run down to a fight, they had demonstrated no stomach for close action with the RN. They consistently refused to risk charging smoke screens, and tended lose command and control at the slightest levels of damage inflicted on them. On the few occasions that their heavy ships had closed for action, their gunnery had been shown to be totally inneffective. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire Italian fleet could be contained by a force half its size. But the Italians could not call upon their entire fleet....they had other committments to attend to, like North Africa and the actions occurring in Greece (Matapan).
An whilst it might be possible to undertae a sea denial strategy (tip and run tactics, high speed bombardments perhaps), this is not the strategy that would be needed to take Gib. Sea Control is what is needed, that is, to move to an area, ensure total control of that sea area, and then undertake a prolonged assault bombardment, before sending in the amphibious forces. Something akin to Iwo or Okinawa in other words. This was totally beyond the ability of either axis Navy to achieve. They lacked the strength to eject the RN presence for a start, and even lacked the necessary skills training and doctrine, or know how to undertake such a complicated naval strategy. We are taliking 16000 defenders in heavily fortified positions here......at Iwo it took 110000 of the best Marines in the world 25 days to subdue 18000 defenders, how on earth are the Axis going to get that many men to the target safely, hold off what can only be assumed as ferocious attacks by the RN and get their people safely ashore only after having dealt with the coastal guns first.
It is just totally unfeasible to consider an attack on the fortress without Spanish assistance.
The Vichy have been attacking Gb themselves. what is the logic of Germany in turn attacking them?
This has been done successfully several times. The Falkland War comes to mind. However I would like to point what I had mentioned a few posts back that the axis were already using Spanish ports to launch attacks against Gb.
Both had a fleet of subs that could be used for this as well.
THis is where I strongly disagree with you. I think tying a prolonged approach would be the worst thing to do. IMHO you need to strike fast and quickly before the British can react with additional assets.
How do they manage to bomb Gibraltar? There are very few Axis ultra-long range bombers, and it is about 900 - 1000 miles each way over water from Marseille south france. It is only about 600 miles from Bayonne in France, but this would involve violating Spanish neutrality. IIRC the range of a Ju88 is about 1300 miles?
For what ever reason, the Vichy aircraft were not intercepted by anything. I have to disagree with you about there being no escorting fighters.In any event, there would be no escorting fighters, so the Axis bombers would be savaged by intercepting British night fighters, and Gibraltar was well equipped with Flak
Remember it's a captured allied ship so it's not unidentified.All ships were searched by the RN blocade, and certainly not allowed to dock at Gibraltar. an unidentified ship attempting to dock would be fired on
This might be something as simple as a good sales job. - but in the 15 minutes I came up with this, it might need some more work.Again, unidentified aircraft were not allowed to land, an aircraft in distress would be directed to Cadiz
That's fine, mainly trying to blind the AA gunners.I'm not sure how feasable this would be? But certainly would not blind gunners on the seaward side of Gibraltar.
I tried to find if any of the guns could shot the run way itself, so I'm not sure. The C-47 I've heard of 50+ people being packed it.As Parsifal has pointed out, the runway contained no cover, and was directly under the guns of the fortress, any troops in transport aircraft would be slaughtered. Besides, how many troops can you fit in a Ju52 for example?
If it turns out the runway is not a good please, then another site will be found. I've been to Gb before and there are more features then 1 runway and cliffs.Paratroops Gliders landing on the runway would be wiped out by the guns. Are you suggesting that the paratroopers try to land on the rocky slopes?
Not sure, but if 10 large boats could drop off 5k troops, that would be great.How many troops can you land by U-boat? 300? 500? vs 20,000+ defenders?
That's something obviously that would need to be taken out. However you only need to open a channel wide enough to get the ships through safely.They would still be unable to neutralize the seaward side fortress guns, which would have a field day with approaching cargo ships.
Originally yes, but they would be either in Spanish ports or anchored off the Spanish coast. Apparently it was not a big deal.Where would these cargo ships come from, Germany or Italy?
Physically, Gibraltar is a limestone mountain rising some 426 meters from sea level, dominating the Straits of Gibraltar, which are less than 16 miles across to Spanish Morocco. The entire territory is less than a kilometer wide and five kilometers long. Along its western side is Gibraltar Bay, where the Port of Gibraltar is located, with a breakwater and facilities almost 50% as large as the territory itself. The mountain itself is honeycombed with 34 miles of tunnels dug into the rock by the British over the years, providing cover for numerous gun emplacements, hangars, storage facilities, barracks, hospitals and thousands of troops.
Militarily, the fortress was used primarily as a naval base and air station, since its limited size allowed it to support a garrison of only 15,000 ground troops. The one airfield, running across the length of the peninsula at the northern extreme of the territory, was expanded into Gibraltar Bay starting in 1937 and completed by 1942. This allowed support for nearly 100 fighters and several squadrons of medium and heavy bombers, and allowed Gibraltar to act as a vital staging point for aircraft transferring into the Mediterranean theater. Anti-air defenses were substantially improved during the war. In 1940, there were some 20 3.7" guns, four 4" guns, 10 40-mm Bofors and two pom-poms, plus numerous searchlights. 1942, this complement had been increased to 30 3.7" guns and almost 20 Bofors.
The naval base at Gibraltar had been built before World War I as a response to German pretensions toward becoming a naval power. By 1939 it was one of the most important British naval facilities outside the home islands, providing a relatively secure anchorage and repair facility for the British Navy. This was the home port for Somerville's Force H, which gave the British Navy an extraordinary ability to project its power into the Western Mediterranean and successfully contest the Italian Navy's attempts to control the sea.
Making the Rock a hard place: British anti-aircraft gunners.
The seaward defenses of the fortress were quite varied but, while formidable, not quite the propaganda image of the Rock, bristling with guns. The primary batteries were a set of twin 9.2" naval guns guns at the southern end of the peninsula, which had sufficient range to interdict all surface naval traffic through the straits. Six more single-gun batteries of 9.2" naval guns were placed facing seaward to the east. Finally, a twin 9.2" howitzer battery faced the straits as well.
The secondary batteries were just as numerous, with eight 6" naval guns, although three of these faced northward, toward the border with Spain. A tertiary armament of four 4" guns in two batteries protected the eastward cliffs.
"Conquerable by No Enemy"
Despite these formidable assets, the Allies themselves considered the fortress highly vulnerable. They expected that any concerted Axis assault would cause the fall of the position in at best a two weeks, at worst a few days. Indeed, prior to the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in late 1942, the Allies worried that the Spanish garrison bordering Gibraltar — about 33,000 troops — could quickly be augmented by 20,000 German military personnel covertly placed inside Spain in anticipation of an attack on the fortress (some estimates placed this as high as 80,000). Allied planners greatly feared a Crete-style air assault, especially in conjunction with a determined ground assault.
Gibraltar was extremely exposed to artillery and air bombardment, with three major Spanish artillery batteries (one in North Africa at Mount Hacho, two near Algiceras — only five miles away from the port) positioned to blast the "Rock" into rubble, collapsing its tunnels and destroying its exposed heavy batteries, as the Japanese had done at Corregidor in 1942. Incidentally, one critical asset, water, was only available from collected rain water runoff, as there was no other natural source of potable water on the Rock itself.
Throughout the war, Italian airmen bombed Gibraltar with mixed success. Moreover, the all-important airfield was only a few hundred yards from the border with Spain, which left it extremely vulnerable to bombardment from Spanish-controlled positions, which could give the Axis control of the air until sufficient Allied aircraft carrier sources might (eventually) be brought to bear. Finally, while the port itself was very well protected, the bay — used as an anchorage for merchant shipping throughout the war — was infiltrated on numerous occasions by Italian frogmen operating from the battered Italian freighter Olterra docked on the Spanish side of the bay, successfully sinking some 42,000 tons over two years.
Given this apparent vulnerability, one wonders about the "invincible" status traditionally conferred on Gibraltar by historians and wargamers alike. The rather light gun batteries placed on the fortress do not appear to have been much of a threat to battleships. Even heavy cruisers would more than likely have been able to pass under Gibraltar's guns with only light damage, at worst.
In part the myth seems to have been perpetuated by the simple fact that using naval assets to bypass the "Rock" was apparently never seriously considered by Germany or Italy during the war. Certainly the Italians had no strategic reason for deploying their scant battlefleet (short on fuel, as always) beyond the Mediterranean — such an act would have been an unacceptable concession of sea control to the British, and ended definitively any pretensions of Italian Empire in Africa for Il Duce.
Likewise, the Germans would never have committed elements of their even smaller surface fleet to be potentially trapped in the Mediterranean. Had the Axis had greater forces at their disposal — say, through the successful seizure of the French battlecruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg — there might have been a reason for a deployment from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
When looked at broadly, the greatest strength of Gibraltar was from its strategic position at the western mouth of the Mediterranean, and the well-developed naval and air facilities which the fortress protected. These combined attributes, rather than any physical "punch" from the fortifications themselves, provided the real deterrent. The narrowness of the straits contributed significantly to Gibraltar's strength, since there was little room for an opponent to avoid air or naval forces that could be easily concentrated to confront an intruder. The difficulties encountered by even German submarine forces attests to the risk of running past a station where strong ASW units are very near their base.
Throughout the war, Britain garrisoned Gibraltar with many of its most important naval assets: The Rodney, Hood, Ark Royal and Renown were variously stationed there. Most of the critical Malta resupply/reprovision convoys started from Gibraltar, and were able to enjoy the cover of its air umbrella for the first third of the journey. By late in the war, Allied air-based ASW patrols extended almost to the Azores, and severely curtailed Donitz's ability to threaten Allied shipping after 1943.
The images of Gibraltar in history, propaganda and wargames as an invincible fortress are thus probably overblown. It makes sense, for example, to allow an Axis naval unit to pass by Gibraltar unimpeded in a game like Third Reich should the Allies fail to sufficiently garrison it with air and naval units to block the enemy's way. Conversely, it makes no sense to allow an Allied player to stack whole armies in a territory less than four miles square!
The real-war concerns of the Allied military planners makes sense when one concedes that it can be (realistically) garrisoned with only three brigades. Indeed, had Gibraltar faced the same kind of assault its cousins like Singapore and Corregidor had to face in WWII, there is a very strong likelihood it would have faced a similar fate. As it was, Gibraltar was allowed to keep face, and its status as the invincible Rock.
By Kevin Canada 2007
What I liked about the article, was it's detail about the defenses and it's comparison to Singapore and Corregidor...which leads me back to my wondering about Japanese involvement in such an assault.
A concerted attack by German and Japanese forces sounds a little far-fetched at first, but then again it would have been something the Allies in that area were not prepared to deal with. The Allies were banking on both the German's and the Italian's limited naval forces so perhaps the Japanese making a showing in that region would have been a tipping point.
I tried to find if any of the guns could shot the run way itself, so I'm not sure. .
the port defence it's good for light ship not versus battleship, not because the 233 mm sheel don't make damage but because the BS firing out of range of this old guns. in caming on enemy fleet for save the rock need a fleet and for stay it that moment there are not in other place for time, months? idk how many fleet the RN can left in defence on the Rock in '40.
imho the invasion of gibraltar was do early after french fall (and with spain allied i think and iread somethong years ago the in june/julliet Franco was not so negativa as in october