"What went Wrong on D- Day" Topic

"June 6, 1944 was just a Tuesday to most people; but for thousands in on the biggest secret of the year, it was D-Day: the largest seaborne invasion in history. We celebrate this day as one of the greatest achievements of the Allied war effort. It was massive on every level. It combined the Allies' industrial strength, the inventiveness of their military engineers and planners, and the coordination of all branches of service on land, sea, and air.

But if you've seen the film Saving Private Ryan, you'll know that for the men in the first waves, particularly on the American sector called Omaha Beach, it felt nothing like success. It was a terrifying maelstrom of chaos and death. All the careful planning, specially designed vehicles, and months of training couldn't save the thousands of men who lost their lives that morning. Planes dropped 13,000 bombs before the landing: they completely missed their targets; intense naval bombardment still failed to destroy German emplacements. The result was, Omaha Beach became a horrific killing zone, with the wounded left to drown in the rising tide…."
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uh.edu/engines/epi3129.htm

Amicalement
Armand

It may have been courage, luck, Allied planning, massive Allied superiority, stupidity by the Germans or a combination of all these, but the real message of D Day was how most things went right (despite the weather, the scattered airborne landings, Omaha, the failure to make any of the first day objective lines etc).

How many military operations of that size do not have some problems?

In fact in life how many things go wrong doing very simple things?

Does not that fact that people carried on, did their duty, make it all the more remarkable.

Only a complete idiot, would expect nothing to go wrong. It was an invasion for goodness sake not a bunch of people going to France for a holiday.

Some wise old military guy said something to the effect of "no plan survives contact with the enemy" back in 1871. Applied on June 6, 1944 and still does today.

My Dad came ashore at Omaha on day 3. Took him less than an hour to walk to the front. Under 3 miles after 3 full days.

Of course things go wrong -- but for both sides!

No plan, however large, detailed, or brilliant, ever survives first contact with the enemy.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

One word: Montgomery – if Patton had been the land commander Caen would have fallen on day #1 – and Market Garden would have never happened……..

Funny Skipper John, my dad also landed on the same day…….

So far everything I have read biggest mistake was not bombing the beaches to crater it. Yes it might have made getting through the beach harder but would have saved many.

Mine has both yours beat coming ashore in one of the assault waves the first day :)

There is no reason to believe had Patton been in charge Caen would have fallen any sooner. In my estimation Montgomery, as usual, saw the entire picture. This included the fact the German's were moving scarce reserves in to hold what would ultimately be an untenable front. Once the breakout occurred I believe it was clear to him that the breakout would more than get the allies back on schedule as reserves would already have been committed.

Montgomery saw what our Russian friends would call the correlation of forces and am sure the one thing he didnt want to do was to present the Germans with any sort of success. Lincoln famously said of Gen Burnside following the battle of the crater (a bit unfairly but that is another topic) "Only Burnside could snatch one last defeat from the jaws of victory". Montgomery would see that would not be the case with the Germans.

Bet your dad would have happily swapped places at the time. Still, as long as he got through unscathed, well done him!

I too wonder how much difference capturing Caen on day one would have made. Better advanced landing strips for aircraft OK, but the further you advance the longer the supply lines and greater the dilution of your limited forces.

As long as the British/Commonwealth forces were ashore and secure and tying down the vast bulk and the elite of the German forces, did it really matter quite where this happened? After all, in the end, Patton was where he was really needed, for Cobra, the lightning advance and the encirclement at Falaise.

Caen/Operation Goodwood was fought against a numerically superior German force and undoubtedly managed to tie down quite a few units that would have seriously inconvenienced the rapid breakout achieved by the Americans and Operation Cobra.

As has often been stated it was crucial that the Commonwealth forces didn't eff up Operation Goodwood, so caution was advisable and a reasonable approach to the way the offensive was conducted.

IMO bottom line, good experienced armies are trained to adapt and overcome, etc. Those on the beach took the initiative, etc., mostly PVTs, SGTs and LTs rose to the occasion. And got the job done albeit at a high cost to many. As happens in many forced entry ops, e.g. beach assaults, parachute/glider insertions, etc.

"What went Wrong on D- Day"

What went wrong is, the enemy has their say in what happens.

What went wrong? Tactically, Operationally, or Strategically? Tactically there were dozens of SNAFUS. As in most major operations. Operationally while some Objectives had not been met, the key ones, securing all five beachheads, interdicting many of the German reinforcements, having enough paras survive to do a delightful job of messing up the German plans, were all accomplished. Strategically it was a huge success. The Allies were ashore in strength and overall with less losses than had been feared. Which meant the Germans in Normandy were doomed. Good Job Ike!

I repeat, things went wrong for BOTH SIDES! The German plan did not run on rails either.