Howdy All,

Thought I'd breach this one for consideration by the learned masses here at the big 'A'. Knowing how many members here are fans of WWII, the potential of applying hindsight to this historical engagement has got to be tempting to say the least!

Just to stir the fire....

Re-aiming offshore batteries better?

Fighter/bomber attacks on beachhead-based emplacements early that morning?

Parachute an assault force that would attack beachhead-based positions from the rear?

Pre-position snipers to address MG positions?

Send more LCM/LCVP's loaded with artillery pieces and/or tanks to shell beachhead at beginning of engagement?

Create hundreds of little german 'voo-doo' dolls so our attacking soldiers could stick them with pins, thereby reducing the defending german troops to writhing girlie-men?


Thought's anyone?

I'll get you guys really excited about one of these things.... ;-)

Tread

It's 11:30 PM here, so pardon me if I ramble a little bit. Here are a few thoughts.

From recently reading, The Bedford Boys, one thing that is mentioned again and again is that the naval gunfire didn't provide enough, or really any, shell craters in Omaha beach. The troops were trained to expect these, and to use them for cover while advancing up the beach. It seems the naval gunfire really needed work to be more effective. The real saviors of the beach were the destroyer skippers who went in close, in one case nearly aground, to provide effective fire support. It was almost an accident this happened. This is something that should have been planned for. Then there is the whole issue of the DD swimming tanks, that didn't swim very well. Why couldn't they have used more LCTs? Here is one I really wonder about. Why couldn't a major smoke screen have been laid down by naval gunfire to hide the troops at least until they could have gotten ashore?

In the field of thinking outside the box what is they had done what the Germans thought they were really doing? What about a having Normandy being a diversion, hopefully to draw forces down there, then hitting Pas de Calais with the real assault?

Well,

here is my opinion, based on some rudimentary knowledge:

Assuming that it was logistically impossible to employ more units under the circumstances given there are only three things that stand out to me:

1. Instruct those who steered the landingcraft at Omaha beach to go in to the point where it was safe to let the tanks go, rather then at a set distance of the beach. In the extreme this might have meant that command should be given to the tank-officers rather then the sailors!

2. For the Americans, accept and make use of the so-called "funnies".

3. Make better use of allied troops (Free French ie) and allied (resistance forces) intelligence!

Thinking outside of the box:

1. Sack Mark Clark (commander in Italy) immediately after the mess he made of the landings on the Italian mainland, or never ever appoint him in the first place. It is hard to imagine that other commanders would have made such a mess of the campaign. Supposedly even American soldiers wanted him courtmartialled for incompetence....
Use two divisions (or two divisions and an armored brigade) that now had to be employed at Anzio or Monte Cassino (two battles that could have been avoided or shortened if not for Clark's incompetence) for the Normandy landings.

2. Add one beach, where if possible units should be landed on D-Day or D-Day + 1. Use the units not needed on the Italian front. Land them at the beaches north of the Ay-river on the West-side of the Cotentin peninsula.
Objectives: Lessay (secure crossing over the Ay-river to seal of the beach-head), La Haye du Puits and then St.Sauveur or Etienville (link up with 82nd airborne).
Consequence: The Cotentin peninsula would have been cut of from two sides. The German forces would have been spread thinner, arguably leading to a much quicker collapse of those forces in the peninsula in the following manner (assuming landings on D-Day + 1):

The German 6th fallschirmjaeger brigade might have been forced to return and face the new landings rather then go on and occupy Carentan. Almost certainly the 91st Luftlande division and the 243rd infantry division would have been unable to concentrate on the American airborne forces, leading to a much quicker collapse of the German front.

Proposed forces: 2 infantry divisions, ideally one armored brigade (or the equivalent) added. The Anzio force would have been ideal... (arguably even overkill).

The Allies would have been much better off with the Voodoo :-)

Hitler was a big fan of the occult and tried to use it in war and descision making, so why can the Allies try something along those lines! :-)