Was Eben Emael the best Special Operation in history?

[Kadagar_AV]

A documentary part 1, other parts accessible from link

I went through some (read: many) special operations, and this one stands out to me. I have yet to know of a better executed attack by special ops, but maybe someone can shed a light?

WW2 German military at its very best, IMHO. No wonder the world got paranoid!



EDIT: Long story short, 71 highly trained combat engineers in 30 minutes neutralized a fort meant to protect, like, the better part of that front in Belgium.

[SoFarSoGood]

Depends how class 'special operations'. MI6 smuggling the entire KGB archive out of the USSR was rather a large 'coup', plus the archivist and his family, though not widely known, strikes me as a large 'coup' if you class it a 'special operation' (well it wasn't a normal manoevre).

[Kadagar_AV]

Depends how class 'special operations'. MI6 smuggling the entire KGB archive out of the USSR was rather a large 'coup', plus the archivist and his family, though not widely known, strikes me as a large 'coup' if you class it a 'special operation' (well it wasn't a normal manoevre).

Well, I meant more in military combat terms than information gathering. But kudos for that knowledge :)

[Conradus]

Of course the Belgians weren't prepared. Everything went wrong for them :D

[Kadagar_AV]

Of course the Belgians weren't prepared. Everything went wrong for them :D

Belgians being unprepared is somewhat of a tactical doctrine you could easily rely on...

Kind of like the auto-win attacking France is.

[PanzerJaeger]

Some of Skorzeny's ops were pretty impressive, especially pulling Mussolini off the top of a mountain only accessible by cable car.

[Kadagar_AV]

Some of Skorzeny's ops were pretty impressive, especially pulling Mussolini off the top of a mountain only accessible by cable car.

w00t?

Elaborate please, that one must have went me by with a swoooshing sound...

[Conradus]

Belgians being unprepared is somewhat of a tactical doctrine you could easily rely on...

As a Belgian I can totally support that statement :p Look at that docu, half of the turrets weren't manned, the other half had nonworking guns, elevators ... Belgium's just jinxed when it comes to warfare (except versus the Italians in Africa)

[Vladimir]

For Belgium, didn't they just land on top of the roof and drop hand grenades down the ventilation system? More shoddy engineering than tactical brilliance.

PJ is right; that was brilliant.

[Kadagar_AV]

For Belgium, didn't they just land on top of the roof and drop hand grenades down the ventilation system? More shoddy engineering than tactical brilliance.

PJ is right; that was brilliant.

They had a new invention, I forgot its name, but is basically melts metal away. That was used to disable the weapon positions...

Watch the video I linked to, it was quite well planned. IMHO more so than pulling Mussolini away...

PJ: didn't Skorzeny budge his way into the operation in the last second? IMHO he was a brute and tactically challenged.

[Beskar]

They had a new invention, I forgot its name, but is basically melts metal away. That was used to disable the weapon positions...

Thermite?

[M to the A]

Thermite?

They used a new type of bomb with a hollow charge.

Didn't they just land on top of the roof and drop hand grenades down the ventilation system? More shoddy engineering than tactical brilliance.

It was the first use of military gliders in a war I think, which is pretty balsy. They also trained 6 months for it, after all it was supposed to be an impregnable fortress. They took it in 10 minutes... :p

[Kocmoc]

I dont agree.

If they would had attacked it from the ground, I would agree.
The whole idea of this castle, same as the whole maginol-line, was to stop/fight against ground units.

At this stage of war, no one on the allied side could imagine an operation from the air.
If you look at that castle, you can clearly see, than the guns, MG´s, the whole shoot-system, was against ground,
there was no attack angle above 45°, in some cases maybe 50-60°.

Now you have to consider, that the strength of the castle, was heavy gun protection on long range.
Most guns, arty was pointless, since the Sturmtruppe „Granit“ came from the air and did land just on top of the castle.

Now some words about the operation:

1. 82 men in 11 sections - Sturmtruppe "Granit"

2. the castle had over 1000 men

3. They used this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaped_charge
You also have to consider, that shaped charges was completely new and unknown to the belgians
Therefore, they had fear, that the whole bunkersystem could crash and they became surrender

4. In the "world" of the normal allied army general and soldier, the enemy couldnt come from the air.
Thats the reason, why the top of the castle was not defended and also no flak on that castle.

There are tons of information about the operation, just some small further here:

The germans did land with this on the top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFS_230
The reason was, that you couldnt transport the shaped charge (50kg) with a parachute.

The german came from the belgian side, so the belgians thought, that were belgian planes (that did cost time)
Now as the germans was on top of the castle, they was in huge advance, the destroyed the mainguns (the rest they didnt destroy, since they planed to take over the castle
and use it themselves). Germans did drop a lot of smoke on the top, now the belgians couldnt see whats going on.

There happend a lot more…

In the end, the belgians could have attacked the germans up there, but they was slow and unsure, whats going on up there.
On the other hand, the germans had a very strong defensive position. But still, 82 vs 1000!

The next morning 7:00 the german Pionierbatalion 51 arrived to support the Sturmtruppe Granit
Around 11:30 the belgians did surrender.


Summary.

The 82 men was elite soldier, without a doubt. Very well trained with pretty good weapons.
The main reason they could take over the castle was something the belgians couldnt imagine, attack from the air.

But thats it, its not really some awesome operation. Its like you attack a phalanx with a tank.
There was no logistic difficulty, there was a Plan B as well.


If you want a real hardcore operation, with german "Fallschirmjäger", than read something about Kreta.

[Brenus]

Hum, the Norwegian attack on the Heavy Water Factory would have my vote, as the defenders were aware of this kind of attack.

[Fisherking]

I vote for the Greek horse in Troy. lol