WW1 airdrop

[Dog Soldier]

If the logistics and support could be worked out in 1918, AB troops might have had an effect not dissimilar to the German small group Sturmtruppen which did infiltrate and erode the front lines to precipitate the only breakthrough of the war in 1918. Thought the outcome of that final German Western Front offensive was a failure, it achieve the goal of breaking the trench stalemate of the last three years and force a relatively mobile war for a short period period of time and geographic scale.

If the idea of a paratroop drop was to infiltrate the static lines then attack in coordination with a major ground offensive as the Sturmtruppen did, then I can see what the Allied proponents of this idea were trying to achieve. If the Allied planners were willing to accept the same rate of losses with the AB that the German Sturmtruppen suffered, the goal of breaking the stalemate could have been achieved. The losses among the Sturmtruppen was considered by the Germans less than the traditional assault cost which had failed the last three years for both sides.

It may have worked.... we will never know. All the same, the life expectancy of a new Allied AB guy or a German Sturmtruppen in 1918.

Dog Soldier