Convert this page to a PDFPosted: Thursday, May 30, 2013
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
Most do not realize that the Allies did not accomplish all of their goals on D-Day; that because of the “hedgerows” of Normandy (that had been there since the Normans) the progress of the battle was severely delayed. It is not the intention of this article to speak of “how close we came” to not winning. It is my intent to increase an appreciation in the reader of two elements: How the nature of the fighting machine of the Allies was superb, and the good fortune and ironies of the conflict all ended up working in favor of the Allies.
The Nature of the Allied Fighting MachineThe opinion of your most ferocious opponent perhaps could be the most eloquent summation of your prowess. In this case it was. General Erwin Rommel speaking of the Russians versus the Allies:
“It’s not a matter of fanatical hordes to be driven forward in masses against our line, with no regard for casualties and little recourse to tactical craft; here we are facing an enemy who applies all his native intelligence to the use of his many technical resources, who spares no expenditure of material and whose every operation goes its course as though it had been the subject of repeated rehearsal. Dash and doggedness alone no longer make a soldier”.
A note on Rommel, not only was he away celebrating his wife’s birthday on June 6, he also suffered the fate of being severely wounded by a strafing American Fighter passing over his car. Because he was recuperating, and absent from work, he was deemed to be a part of the conspiracy to kill Hitler. His life ended because of that purge.
Also, A Group of Ironies Help Give Edge in June 6, 1944 Victory
1) On the invasion night, Hitler Gave Orders “Don’t Wake Me” and took a sleeping pill.
2) Rommel’s Wife Was a Gemini, Born on June 6. Rommel was not at Normandy. He was away celebrating his wife’s birthday. Rommel’s absence caused an “away weekend” for some high level subordinate officers.
3) Rommel recognized that the Allies would possess air superiority and would be able to harass his movements from the air. He therefore proposed that the armored formations be deployed close to the invasion beaches. In his words, it was better to have one Panzer division facing the invaders on the first day, than three Panzer divisions three days later when the Allies would already have established a firm beachhead. Von Geyr argued for the standard doctrine that the Panzer formations should be concentrated in a central position around Paris and Rouen, and deployed en masse against the main Allied beachhead when this had been identified. These factors all kept the Panzers away from the Beach.
4) The argument was eventually brought before Hitler for arbitration. He characteristically imposed an unworkable compromise solution. Only three Panzer divisions were given to Rommel, too few to cover all the threatened sectors. The remainder were actually designated as being in Reserve. Hitler reserved to himself the authority to move the divisions in Reserve, or commit them to action. On 6 June many Panzer division commanders were unable to move because Hitler had not given the necessary authorization, and his staff refused to wake him upon news of the invasion.
5) Compounding the invasion efforts was the extensive Atlantic Wall, ordered by Hitler in his Directive 51. Believing that any forthcoming landings would be timed for high tide (this caused Eisenhower to time the landings to be for low tide.)
6) Operation Fortitude – A Fake Army across from Pas De Calais caused Hitler to place his main defenses there, instead of at Normandy.
7) General Patton was respected by the Germans; and Eisenhower knew of this respect. Putting Patton in charge of the fake army further kept German attention there.
8) The Full Moon of June 6 made June 6 the “go date”. The Germans meanwhile took comfort from the existing poor conditions, which were worse over Northern France than over the English Channel itself, and believed no invasion would be possible for several days. Some troops stood down, many senior officers were away for the weekend. While dozens of division, regimental and battalion commanders were also away from their posts conducting war games, just prior to the invasion.
9) The confusion in Glider Allied Air Drops actually worked in their favor, creating a confusion so chaotic that the Germans could not determine the patterns of invasion.
10) The misplacement of the parachute drops directly on St. Mere Eglise, in addition to live troops also caused cacophony and almost a “black comedy” causing general German confusion again.
11) The dummy parachute drops, armed with small explosives were successful in diverting the German 915th Infantry Regiment toward the fake drop zone to counter what the Germans thought was an airborne landing. This temporarily weakened the defenses in the actual paratroop drop area.
12) German commanders at all levels failed to react to the assault phase in a timely manner. Communications problems exacerbated the difficulties caused by Allied air and naval firepower. Local commanders also seemed incapable of the task of fighting an aggressive defense on the beach, as Rommel envisioned.
13) The German High Command remained fixated on the Calais area, and von Rundstedt was not permitted to commit the armored reserve. When it was finally released late in the day, any chance of success was much more difficult.
14) Allied Code Breaking – Unbreakable American Codes – The Communications Edge on June 6, 1944 - ULTRA gave the Allies critical information in the European air war. During the Battle of Britain, the outnumbered Royal Air Force depended on ULTRA to counter German raids. Later, Enigma intercepts gave Allied planners detailed information on the effects of strategic bombing, and they allowed Allied air power to virtually halt Axis sea convoys in the Mediterranean. In contrast to German and Japanese codes, American codes proved unbreakable due to a superior code machine known as SIGABA, the most secure cryptographic machine used by any nation in WWII. By 1943, more than 10,000 SIGABA machines were in use.
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/world-war-ii/essays/d-day-or-operation-overlord-june-6-1944
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=15559 Christofer French is a Father of Four and a Grandfather of Six. He has been in beautiful Colorado for over 30 years. He had a 25 year paralegal career framed by counseling in the 70's and 90's (pastoral, career and relationships counseling) He is an ordained minister, obtained a Masters in Psychology, and then, in 2003, a Psy.D. at California Coast University. Little Brown published his book, "The Professional Paralegal Job Search" in 1995. He has also written a book with an astrological emphasis about "How to Get Along With All Those Sun Signs". He continues his work as a Life Coach, Counselor, Author and Writer under the umbrella concept "Syncretism" --The artful way of blending diverse beliefs and philosophies. His self-described approach is to be a "Scholar on the Paths of the Human Spirit". His blog is astrologygetalong.com, discussing global issues, cosmic questions, human relations challenges and personal achievement. This Article has been viewed 172 times. (Not updated in real-time.)No comments yet.
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