re: Normandy- Omaha Beach question

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The allies invade Normandy and Hitler holds his troops until it's too late.
Imagine if the Germans were really ready for us. I don't think the we make it...

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Gen Rommel knew the Allies were going to invade at Normandy but Hitler overrode him and sent the bulk of his troops futher up north to Calais. When word of the invasion at Normandy came to Hitler, he thought it was a diversionary tactic by the Allies and he kept the bulk of his troops at Calais. It took about 72 hrs for Hitler to realize the real invasion was at Normandy but it was too late. The Allies got a foothold into France.

And yes a lot of was due to Gen Patton being as a decoy to make Hitler think the Allies were going to invade at Calias.

The Allies used movie sets to fool Hitler and the Nazi's into thinking the invasion was going to take place further north. The Allies used fake jeeps, tanks, artillery and other things to fool the Nazi's.

If Hitler would have listened to Gen Rommel, the Allied invasion would have been thrown back into the sea and the outcome of the war could have dragged on for several more years.

If that would have happpened, the Nazi's may have had enough time to fully develop the jet fighter and other weapons they were developing. If the Nazi's had a fully developed jet air force, the Allied air force would have been decimated.

The whole makeup of the world could have been drasically different today.

Months.


He's is right about the accuracy of guns at the time being an issue of naval artillery support on D day, but wrong about technology suddenly resolving them for Pacific theater battles.

The weather is notoriously bad in that part of the ocean.

And it was particularly bad on D-day. (remember the vomiting in the landing boats on Saving Private Ryan?)

Shortly before the invasion (I think as late as June 4th), German meteorologists said that the weather was so bad that they felt invasion was impossible for at least 2 weeks.

Long range guns could not target bunkers without fear of hitting their troops in the rolling seas.

That was the big significance of the destroyers getting so close to shore: it allows them to switch to direct-fire aiming and marginalized the effect of rolling seas.

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He knew he was the first of everyone in a operation shrouded in secrecy?

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Considering she said 1 of 15 Americans selected and he was a pilot, I'm pretty sure she meant that he was the 1st American to land a plane on Normandy.

Those paratroopers planes didn't land back in France after dropping the 10k paratroopers.

I honestly think the fact that people, families or what have you relaxing on the beach is the best tribute you could pay to those guys. The only authentic tribute to guys who died to preserve freedoms is a peaceful world without war and bloodshed. What is more symbolic of that than people enjoying themselves and relaxing at the beach?

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And it was particularly bad on D-day. (remember the vomiting in the landing boats on Saving Private Ryan?)

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Not arguing your point about the rough seas, but I think the vomiting was symbolic of them being scared shitless more than sea sickness.

This thread really makes me want to go to the WWII museum.

If you've never been, go. Just give yourself a lot of time. There's so much to take in.

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Not arguing your point about the rough seas, but I think the vomiting was symbolic of them being scared shitless more than sea sickness.

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No reason why it could't be both from a directorial standpoint I suppose.

But it was a BIG talking point in historical recounts how they gave the infantry a big breakfast the day of the invasion....only to have most of them puke it up in transit.

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This thread really makes me want to go to the WWII museum.

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It is very eye opening. Its amazing when you see how outnumbered the allies were. They truely were the greatest generation.

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Multiple reasons. First of all, naval shelling (like most kinds of bombardments) in WW2 were not accurate enough to do it around your own troops. As terrible as it sounds, they had superiority in the theater with boots on the ground, and the causalities were acceptable for taking those pillboxes. Nothing stops an invasion quite like shelling your own troops rushing a stationary position. It was also a very cloudy morning and previous night before, which led to a lot of missed targets from the Ariel and naval bombardments. It's also a reason a lot of sticks of paratroopers ended up all over the place.

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Wrong. Naval gunfire was highly accurate back then. Otherwise, how could they hit targets (ex., ships) from more than a mile away? The problems were that the Germans were not out in he open Therefore making them easy targets. During the shelling, they were in fortified bunkers/pillboxes that could withstand the shelling. Also, a lot of troops were in the trenches, so unless it was a direct hit Inside of the trench line, no damage was done. Same thing as in the Pacific theater - Tarwa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, etc. We bombed/shelled the hell out of the Japs but they were so dug in that in reality it had little to no effect.