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Really, could they have?

Come on, it's a giggle.

River crossing, YES.
Channel-swimming ... NEVER.
Assualt ships, designed for the Baltic ... vaguely possible.

However, both available Jaguars and the serviceable Harrier would have had them within 10 minutes [assuming the RAF had been pre-warned, and it wasn't a weekend, of course]. :wink:
 
According to crabs at RAF Gutesloh the Jaguar was the one with the maximum payload of two packets of leaflets saying "Give up or the Harriers will come!"
 
brighton hippy said:
was'nt there the arguement that the famous shot of the tanks surging across a river was aided by a massive causeway built for the a occasion :twisted:.

the other point russian rivers are wide slow moving with low sides and slow currents.
the vaser high sided and a bitch of a current.
some come the cold war those who were on the right side of the resevere demolitions could brew up and tuck into biscuits fruit ab as 3rd shocks t72s and bmps discovered there amphib capability was'nt quite up to spec :roll: :twisted:

On the RAC forum is a thread describing how the first battlegroups to train in Poland after the war were mortified to discover that in Polish training areas, entire river systems were reshaped to match exactly BAOR's rivers (and presumably Weser was top of the list) so that they could drive up, drive in, drive out regardless of the river.

After my time so I couldn't possibly comment.
 
Just moving off the 'military approach'.
With the number of UK politicos they already had in their power such as most of the current crop which currently posture as a serving government, they may well have stopped on the French coast and negotiated a surrender.
 
Anyone with big enough balls to try an opposed crossing of the channel in a 50 ton MBT probably deserves to be on our island.... 8O
 
happybonzo said:
I seem to remember a study that showed any unpleasantness going Nuclear within ten days.

Wasn't the Buzzword, "Tactical nuclear"? Pop one of those in the channel and all the 3 headed dover sole would attack the evil commies. :p
 
They would not have made it over the Weser without getting their bums wet and that would have been an end to the matter. The Lancashire Lads of 5th RRF (V) would have driven the lot back to the far bank from whence they came. But then did we have the MTDs to do it ?
 
Alec_Lomas said:
Just moving off the 'military approach'.
With the number of UK politicos they already had in their power such as most of the current crop which currently posture as a serving government, they may well have stopped on the French coast and negotiated a surrender.

True that Bob.
 
After the shambles of the BAOR Battle Royal exercises in 1954, there was a variety of approaches tried during 1955. One in December in severe winter conditions demonstrated very clearly that 1 Corps were not up to a fighting retreat. So the Operation Orders were all rewritten early in 1956 for a fast overnight general retreat to the other side of the Rhine, leaving all the bridges blown behind them to buy time. What might then have happened is an interesting question. You have to remember that at the time in both France and Italy there were large well organised Communist Parties tied to Moscow, and there was no effective German forces. So there may have just been us and the Americans. The assumption at 1 Corps was that the Soviet Third Shock Army would not be much delayed, but we could retreat faster than they could advance.
 
What about all those big fast hovercraf they had and the twin hulled fast ferry ships? I seem to remember seeing a video of 4-5 Soviet hovercraft coming in at around 40mph and spilling tanks, apcs and troops onto the beach in very quick time. Lets face it, right now land a brigade at a big airport and you could fly in thousands of troops before plod or the RAF know whats happening...
 
WhiteHorse said:
What about all those big fast hovercraf they had and the twin hulled fast ferry ships? I seem to remember seeing a video of 4-5 Soviet hovercraft coming in at around 40mph and spilling tanks, apcs and troops onto the beach in very quick time. Lets face it, right now land a brigade at a big airport and you could fly in thousands of troops before plod or the RAF know whats happening...

You would hope for some pre-warning ... 8)

And how proof are hovercraft skirts against .50 / 20mm / 30mm ?
 
blue_sophist said:
WhiteHorse said:
What about all those big fast hovercraf they had and the twin hulled fast ferry ships? I seem to remember seeing a video of 4-5 Soviet hovercraft coming in at around 40mph and spilling tanks, apcs and troops onto the beach in very quick time. Lets face it, right now land a brigade at a big airport and you could fly in thousands of troops before plod or the RAF know whats happening...

You would hope for some pre-warning ... 8)

And how proof are hovercraft skirts against .50 / 20mm / 30mm ?

Thats the point isn't it, they can take a hell of a battering and still perform.
 

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