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D-Day Luck???

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by vesturiiis (U13688567) on Friday, 15th May 2009

  I've read a lot on D-Day and many historians seem to place much of the Allies sucess on just plain luck or were there so many moving parts that the operation was unstoppable.

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  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Mutatis_Mutandis (U8620894) on Saturday, 16th May 2009

  Luck certainly played a role. Factors that were beyond the control of either side, such as the weather, probably favoured the Allies: The rather bad weather, which had already forced a 24 hrs delay, certainly helped the Allies to achieve surprise. But it also sank a substantial number of amphibious tanks.
  
  That said, the German position was almost untenable. The traditional challenge of an invasion across water is that it starts a reinforcements race. The attacker, free to concentrate his forces for an attack on a point of his choice, enjoys an initial advantage over the defender who has to cover a wide front. However, once past this initial phase, the defender can quickly bring reinforcements to the new front over land, while the attacker has to land new forces and supplies on a beachhead, which has nowhere near the facilities of a port or the ease of use of a bridge. This usually favours the defenders.
  
  But on D-day, the balance was tilted heavily against the defenders. The Allies enjoyed crushing levels of air and naval superiority, which had the effect of safeguarding their own supply lines but making it almost impossible for the Germans to move their forces, except on a small scale and under cover of darkness. The large scale destruction of railway stations and bridges by Allied bombing, and sabotage actions by the French resistance, added greatly to the problem.
  
  There was also a substantial difference in the technology brought to bear on the logistics problem. The Allies were rich in ships, landing craft, transport aircraft, trucks, jeeps, pipeline laying equipment, fuel. The German army had to rely almost exclusively on trains and horse-drawn transport, and was plagued by fuel shortages.
  
  Rommel had understood the problem, hence his insistence on defending the coastline itself and defeating the invasion in its very first stage, but in reality Germany simply did not have the means to defend all vulnerable spots on the Atlantic coast. It did not have enough guns, enough mines, enough concrete, or enough men. Semi-invalids and foreign volunteers of dubious loyalty had to help defend the coastline. Rommel's measures had some effect, notably at Omaha Beach, which happened to be defended by elements of the 352nd infantry division, a first-line division at full strength, well dug in. This was a surprise to the American landing force, which suffered heavily as a result. But elsewhere the defensive line was often very weak.
  
  At Omaha beach, the Germans momentarily believed that they were about to drive the invaders backs into the sea. But actually, the invasions in the Mediterranean had already demonstrated that an invasion force that had grabbed hold of a substantial sector of beach, and was backed by the powerful naval guns of the invasion fleet, was virtually impossible to drive back. The invaders held on, overcame the resistance, and drove inland.
  
  With the beaches secured and artificial ports under construction (although one was destroyed by a storm) the Allies were firmly on land. Not all was well: The bridgehead lacked enough room for airfields, because of the failure to capture Caen, it did not have a real port, and the terrain of Normandy would soon prove extremely difficult to advance in. Nevertheless, they were there to stay, and had the advantages of firepower and numbers on their side.
  

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  Posted by stalteriisok (U3212540) on Saturday, 16th May 2009

  d day luck - yes probably
  
  1- that little bit of luck that the ussr were still in the war and tying down over 100 + first class german divisions and bleeding them to death
  also 60% of the luftwaffe - wonder how d day would have panned out if they were available in france
  
  2. the fact that the majority of german divisions - esp in the cotenin peninsula were the ear throat nose or hiwi divisions - ie not high class
  
  4 6 high class german divisions were held in the pas de calais because of the deception plan of the allies
  
  5 now this is the most important - allied divisions were landing - bombers were bombing - 16 inch naval guns were ripping whole areas apart - BUT no one dared to awake adolf hitler
  adolf hitler
  
  by the time he woke the battle was over ""
  
  st

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