Raid
2 primary works
Book 9
The successful rescue of imprisoned Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from atop the Gran Sasso plateau was one of the most dramatic special forces operations in military history. Arrested by his own officers in July 1943, Mussolini had been whisked away to an isolated and heavily guarded mountaintop resort, the Hotel Campo Imperatore which could only be reached by a heavily guarded cable car station. The Germans, led by SS Haupsturmfuhrer Otto Skorzeny, launched a daring Glider-borne assault, which surprised the Italian guards and secured Mussolini without a shot being fired. However, when the original escape plan had to be scrapped, the Germans organize a desperate, last minute airborne extraction to escape before the Italians could launch a counter attack.
Book 30
By December 1942, the Soviets had surrounded the German 6th Army in Stalingrad, cutting off all lines of supply except through the air. Seeking to sever this last German lifeline, Soviet Command decided to launch a raid with the entire 24th Tank Corps to seize the airfield at Tatsinskaya, the primary operating base for the German airlift efforts. On 17 December, the 24th Tank Corps advanced toward Tatsinskaya, seizing the airfield on Christmas Eve. The Soviet tankers succeeded in destroying many Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground, but afterwards found themselves isolated and out of fuel behind the German lines. Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein rapidly organized a counterattack with elements of two panzer divisions, crushing most of the raiding force between 26 and 28 December. Just before the raiding force was annihilated, it received permission to abandon its heavy equipment and escape back to Soviet lines on foot. Thus, the raiders accomplished their mission of severely disrupting the airlift to Stalingrad, but at the cost of an entire tank corps.