Conquering the Panama Canal

[Flubber]

What a lot of people dont realise is that the Panama canal isnt really a canal at all , it is actually a series of locks and cuts that connect an Artificial lake (Gatun Lake) to both sides of the Isthmus.

Really? I don't think anyone here ever knew that...

So , the only other weak link in the system is the dam itself , without which water level in the lake would drop to the point at which it is unnavigable. There are various ways one might do this , the most obvious being to send saboteurs to blow holes in it at high water. If one were more adventurous you might try a "Dambusters" type mission using bouncing bombs.

The dam is the weak link in the system? An earthen dam with a rammed clay core 2100 ft thick at the base, 400 ft thick at water level, 100 ft thick at the top, 7500 ft long, and weighing 27 million tons is going to be put out of action by some commandos with satchel charges or a Dambuster-like mission?

Sure, whatever.

 

[hairysamarian]

And would paratroopers be useful here, or should it just be regulars?

Paratroopers in the 1920s? Too early; if memory serves, experiments with such troops didn't begin until the 1930s.

 

[Sir Scott]

The dam is the weak link in the system? An earthen dam with a rammed clay core 2100 ft thick at the base, 400 ft thick at water level, 100 ft thick at the top, 7500 ft long, and weighing 27 million tons is going to be put out of action by some commandos with satchel charges or a Dambuster-like mission?

Ah. Darn. I assumed it was a more conventional concrete gravity dam. Serves me right I suppose. Well played fine sir. I suppose this could well be done , but it would need far more explosives than I reckoned on.