71st Anniversary of D Day (June 6, 2015)

The Allies were extremely fortunate that they were not tossed back into the sea. For one, The Dessert Fox had flown home for a birthday and was not in command at the exact moment of the invasion. Second, and truly amazing, was the fact that Hitler was not informed of the invasion for several hours due to his underlings being too scared to wake him from his sleep. This gave our troops precious time, as the German commanders were too scared to move their Panzer divisions held in reserve into the fight without Hitler's approval. It is truly amazing what those men fought through. Rommel had set up an adequate defense with what he had, and if he had his boots on the ground at the time, it might have turned out very differently.

 

All true. Had Hitler organized his forces with a competent chain of command it could have easily been a different story altogether. The Germans were very strong in all branches of their military.. However with very few exceptions, their respective chains of command were either incompetent or crippled by the fuhrer himself. When the going got tough (summer of '44 in France/winter of '41 in the east), the sketchy German command got exposed.

It also was a huge stroke of luck that the Germans weren't able to utilize those big 155mm guns that were removed from Pointe du Hoc. Even though they were removed from their casemates and taken inland, they were all still intact and could have easily been used to sink Allied ships. With as crowded as the sea was off the coast of Normandy, it would have been a turkey shoot. They would scarcely even need forward observation. That would have been a huge disaster.

Just goes to show how unorganized the Germans were on the morning of June 6th.

 

just a diversion. Krauts were waiting on the 'real' invasion by Patton's FUSAG in Calais

 

Absolutely! The Germans thought that the Allies would strike at the Pas de Calais. Hell, we even built a giant rubber army that their airplanes provided intelligence to, and it was believed in. The Brits actually took a homeless dead mans body, turned him into an officer with papers, and snuck a sub close to the shores where the body would be found and shot the body out of the torpedo tubes. The body was picked up by the Germans with battle plans to invade Pas de Calais. It was accepted by German commanders as fact. Amazing! I love military history man. It is kind of "my" thing. Obviously, you share an interest.

 

And so does GoT!

 

That was certainly the obvious crossing point. The Germans obviously had to lock that point down hard.. but there are many reasons to believe Rommel suspected the allies would land on a beach like those near Caen.

While inspecting the Atlantic Wall, Rommel immediately recognized such beaches. They were similar to the beaches the Allies chose as a landing point in Sicily.

 

Yes sir.. 20th century military history is sort of my thing too.

 

I like the old stuff too! My family has been involved in every war since the founding of our country. I was the first male in my father's line not to serve in the military. He is happy about that. I serve in a different way now in the medical field. I have always been fascinated about military tactics and the reasons for war in the first place. Have you ever read Stars in Their Courses by Shelby Foote? It's an excellent short read about the battle of Gettysburg (minute by minute). It can be read in a few hours and is indeed a go getter for someone like you. I know you would enjoy it.

 

Its really a shame Erwin Rommel was the man he was in that particular place and time. He truly was a great military mind. He was certainly admired by allied command.. publicly even. His boss was just a wack job.

 

I'll put it on my Goodreads.

Yeah the Civil War is fascinating too. Especially living here in the south where I can drive 30 mins in any direction and either find an old battlefield, some kind of monument, or plantations that havent changed much at all since the war