Speaking of D-Day, I was curious to see what you all thought was the biggest mistake made by Germany during or shortly following the D-day invasion that helped the Allies to succeed?

My 2 cents: Failure to realize that the landings were the real thing and committing forces to respond to that realization.

You have a point. The Germans were convinced that Normandy was a faint and Calais was the real target. Also, having they armor so far away. By the time the Germans realized this was the real deal moving panzers to the front was mighty dangerous business with all the allied fighters and bombers in the air.

Not enough men on the coast. Despite all the defense works there were not enough men to defend the Atlantic Wall. This also, to the point that they thought Calais was the landing point.

I bet there is a ton more.

I think both of those facts, the failure to recognize Normandy for what it was, the real thing, and therefore the failure to release the armor reserve into the attack are two manifestations of a larger problem.

Adolph Hitler. His inability to allow his on scene generals to run the war and his unshakable belief in his own infallibility were the underlying reason that both the other reasons caused the battle to be lost.

Tom

Correct me if Im wrong you Super History Buffs out there...but didn't Hitler or someone Move troops from the Normandy front to Italy due to them thinking the main invasion was taking place in Italy?

AJ

Thinking the weather was too bad for an invasion. Key leaders went on leave.

#1 Getting out of bed that morning
#2 Nobody listened to Rommel prior to the invasion

Cheyenne

seems to me the Germans were mighty to busy elsewere in the world(russia) to adequadlty defend what they conquered.

Frank

None of the generals would get permission from Hitler to release the armored forces because they didn't want to get him mad. Just think how even more bloody Omaha would have been if there were panzers there too

Even though they recognized the true invasion rather late they still had a chance if they could have brought up the armor.

But, in the long run, did any of that make a difference -- I do not think so. IIRC, these reinforcements would not have made it on 6 June, and so it was too late. Yes, it might have made things harder for the Allies, but they were ashore and were there to stay.

Bringing up armor does nothing to the ships at sea or the aircraft overhead and neither the Kriegsmarine nor the Luftwaffe could challenge their respective opponents such that the armor could operate effectively ...

John

Obviously, armour wouldn't have been used directly against the beach or on the cliffs, but if it had been available immediately behind the beachhead even 24 hours after the first wave, it would have been a much bloodier battle. Armour would have slaughtered the parachute and glider troops, and covered infantry reinforcements. It would also have made a breakout from the beachhead much tougher. Armour wouldn't have had to hit the ships, if they hit enough infantry, the whole landing would have been thrown into chaos. True, armour casualties would have been heavy from Jabos, but as the Falaise Gap would later show, the Germans were prepared to sacrifice entire formations to achieve a particular goal.

I just bought a book called "The first 24 hours of DDay" and one of the Allies greatest concern was the armor. The Allies were afraid that they might encounter armor on the beach which would have been a slaughter. Also that the Allies would not have their armor and anti-tank defenses unloaded before the German armor came slicing through their lines. In fact the German armor didn't even have to be there directly... just have the landing areas and inland routes within range of the guns.

Anyway it's just one of the many mistakes. We will never know since it's all hypothetical

Guys , guys , after an entire day of some pretty exhaustive research , combing through all my historical stuff , I've come across a photo of the German soldier that refused to wake Hitler !!!

Isn't that (la)Keitel (?).

I am not sure whether armor at the beaches would have helped. It probably would have swept away the airborne landings (and could well have meant the end of them, so no Market Garden). However, going towards the beaches would have meant bringing the armor within reach of the naval guns.

Second, even though many armored units were in the area most were not even up to full strength (one of the reasons they were committed piecemeal). The one present was the only panzer division not deemed fit for service in Russia!

The biggest mistake by far was the Germans thinking that the weather would prevent the landings. Not only was Rommel gone (IIRC to Herlingen (?), to his wife). Far worse was that many/most commanders at corps, division and regimental levels were "out of office." Meaning that much of the command structure was not in place when the invasion started.

I'm not a historian, but I am an afictionado of D-Day stuff, and here's my two cents....

Having toured the beaches and museums of the Normandy coast, and from all the reading I've done over the past couple of years, here's what I think are the big mistakes the Germans made....

1) Hitler having control over the armor. If his subordinates had been able to call it in, it would definitely been a tougher, bloodier campaign.

1a) The subordinates being too chicken-sh*t to wake up Hitler. I'm pretty sure that if he was woken-up to be told that an Invasion was impending / underway, he wouldn't be all that angry about it....

2) Putting their faith in Calais and being fooled by Patton's "Fake Army". An ingenious idea by the Allies if I may say.

3) Not having sufficient forces defending the Atlantic Wall. Granted, commiting this many men (to stand on what could be described as Glorified Guard Duty) could be viewed as a waste of manpower... when that manpower could better be used in mobile fighting units.

One friend of mine, a fan of Axis armor, said that the Germans guaranteed a "non-win" of the war at Kursk. Personally, I don't know enough about it to be able to voice an opinion on that.

But I have heard that another mistake that the Germans made was fighting a war on two fronts. True? I don't honestly know... I'll leave that to the historians, and get back to my Model Bench.

Thanks fellas....

Paul.

Intelligence,the Germans were simply not up to the job.
Arthur

As I remember my reading on this D-Day topic so many years ago, when
I was young, the German High Command were afraid to wake up Hitler
from his important nap. Thus they didn't get the Panzers up to Normandy
in time to make an important difference. The Allied forces had already
pushed inland, and had gotten off the beach before the Panzers were
brought up to the front lines. So I'm saying THAT is the biggest mistake
the Wehrmacht made at Normandy. They didn't wake Hitler up from his
nap.