Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

occasional_cynic t1_j0zs5zb wrote

> On the day of the invasion, the Allies faced heavy resistance from the German forces

One nit - besides Omaha beach the Germans were not able to strongly resist the landings. They did not have force available to man all the beaches. Resistance only stiffened significantly when the Germans were able to centralize their forces as the Allies tried to push inland away from their artillery support.

28

HUP t1_j0zxmp2 wrote

Omaha wouldn't have been nearly as bad if there weren't so many artillery and bombing miscues. Naval artillery hit short and caused a lot of deep underwater holes that drowned heavily ladened soldiers. And aerial bombardment fell far behind the line of defense. There were supposed to be a lot of craters from bombing on the beach to give cover. Instead Omaha was pretty flat with few places to hide from German fire.

17

Frammingatthejimjam t1_j10m8a9 wrote

And something like 21 out of 22 tanks sunk on their way to the beach.

Had things gone as planned Omaha wouldn't have been nearly as bad as it was.

10

BikeCharlie t1_j1b1x34 wrote

The DD tanks at Omaha were deployed too far out from coast which, coupled with the rough seas, saw them sink. At Sword beach they were much more effective as deployed closer to shore. The loss of their support definitely made things tougher.

2

Arisdoodlesaurus t1_j10eylf wrote

They also lacked the required Panzer divisions if I’m right since Hitler decided to appease both Gert Avon Runstedt(?) and Rommel’s different demands for the exact location of the tanks

2

occasional_cynic t1_j111q6f wrote

Eh, it would not have mattered. Hitler was micro-managing everything at that point. Also, subsequent actions proved the panzer divisions were useless near the beach. The Germans never had any hope of repulsing the invasion without enough air power to repulse the Allied naval force.

6