It was a nasty shock for many of the invading troops to arrive and find the gun emplacements were still in action. A: The preparations for the crossing of the Channel were the most intense and meticulous that have ever been made for any operation. If you are going to get your troops 10 miles inland and capture a whole city in a day, which is a very ambitious task to say the least, you have to make sure that your infantry are mounted in armoured personnel carriers or something like that to keep up with the tanks.
The trouble was that the tasks allotted were far more than could be realistically achieved. Then the Germans pushed in their panzer [tank] divisions as quickly as they could and the two sides found themselves in a battle of attrition. Q: Therefore would you say that the British thrust into Normandy did not go as well as planned?
A: Montgomery would have insisted that his master-plan had never changed but then Montgomery, often out of quite puerile vanity, could never admit he had been wrong about anything. He had wanted to seize Caen, advance to Falaise and then break through to Paris. At this point Montgomery realised that by anchoring the panzer divisions on his front it would give the Americans the chance to break through in the west.
It had always been considered a possibility that the Americans would achieve this breakthrough but it was also thought that the British would break through around Falaise. There is however evidence that Montgomery was not prepared to risk such an attempt, knowing the casualties it would cause. Q: Do you think there was any way that the British could have got to Paris first? A: In the circumstances I think it was unlikely simply because of the concentration of panzer divisions against them.
They did nearly break through on a couple of occasions but these attempts were often badly handled. Operation Goodwood [18—20 July], for example, was very poorly planned and when the tanks charged through it was described as the death ride of the English armoured divisions. There was a catastrophic loss of tanks on the first day.
However Goodwood did tie down panzers before the big American launch of Operation Cobra on 25 July and so the American possibility of success there was greatly increased. Q: Despite the setbacks, Cobra succeeded and the Allies managed to seize Paris before their stated objective of 90 days after D-Day. What were the key reasons for their victory? A: Once they were ashore, Allied victory became inevitable. They had a clear superiority of forces. By the end of August they had landed two million men, while at the same time the German army was being ground down in a battle of attrition.
They had overwhelming air power. Allied air forces were able to destroy the German resupply system so they were constantly short of rations, fuel and ammunition. This had a huge effect on the German fighting capacity. A: American general Omar Bradley, who has often been accused of being uninspired, was actually a lot better than, certainly some British, historians have given him credit for.
Where one could criticise Bradley perhaps was his obsession with a broad front strategy, ie not attacking in individual concentrations but assaulting right the way across the whole of the base of the Cotentin peninsular. This strategy contributed to the large number of American casualties. Eisenhower wisely put George Patton in command of the Third Army to make the breakthrough.
Patton was the ideal general for this as his leadership, energy and push was just what was needed for one of the most devastating campaigns in history. A: He was heavily criticised by Montgomery both at the time and afterwards. But Eisenhower actually showed extremely good judgement on all the major issues.
One has to acknowledge a huge achievement in keeping such a very disparate alliance together with such conflicting characters. Whether Eisenhower should have taken a more detailed control of events is a question of what you regard as the role of a supreme commander.
I think he was quite right to let the commanders make their own decisions, having established an overall strategy. A: This is a big area of debate, particularly among historians. There has recently been a swing back to the view that the British and Canadian troops performed better than people in the past have given them credit for, and I believe there is some truth in that.
Operation Overlord, D-Day , was ultimately successful. By late August , all of northern France had been liberated, marking the beginning of the liberation of western Europe from Nazi control.
D-Day also served to convince the German High Command that their total defeat was now inevitable. The Allied forces were then able to advance into Germany, where they could join-up with Soviet troops moving in from the east.
The Normandy landings and resulting advance into the European mainland had also successfully prevented Hitler from re-directing troops from France to build up the Eastern Front against the advancing Soviet Army.
By Spring , the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings on D-Day have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe, but this came at great human cost: around 10, Allied troops are estimated to have been killed, wounded or reported missing.
TV A new online only channel for history lovers. Sign Me Up. Documentary covering events of June 6 from the airborne drops of the early morning through to the German fightback of the late afternoon. D-Day veteran and Chelsea pensioner Bill Fitzgerald reveals the extraordinary preparations he and his fellow recruits underwent for D-Day with the famous 7th Armoured Division - better known as the 'Desert Rats'.
In this poignant interview, D-Day veteran Frederick Bates recalls what it was like for the young men who stormed the Normandy beaches and remembers those who were left behind. In this interview he recalls his experience of 6 June seventy-five years on. Vomit filled the bottom of the boats, and as water kept rushing in over the gunwales, the green-faced men had to bail this vile stew with their helmets.
Though it was cold, the men were sweating. Personnel and equipment arriving at Normandy by air and sea following the D-Day invasion in National Archives and Records Administration, G Planners had divided the landing zone into five separate beaches. The Americans landed at Omaha and Utah beaches.
The fiercest fighting was on Omaha Beach where the enemy was positioned on steep cliffs that commanded the long, flat shoreline. Troops leapt from their landing boats and were pinned down for hours by murderous machine-gun fire that turned the beach into a vast killing field. By nightfall, about , Allied troops and 50, vehicles were ashore with nearly a million more men on the way that summer. The Normandy invasion was one of great turning points of 20th-century history.
An immense army was placed in Nazi-occupied Europe, never to be dislodged. Germany was threatened that same month by a tremendous Soviet invasion from the east that would reach the gates of Berlin by the following April.
Another landing would not have been possible for at least a year. The Museum's original exhibit, located on the third floor of Louisiana Memorial Pavilion, helps you understand what the Allies faced in Normandy, from the comprehensive preparations beforehand to the daunting challenges once troops landed on Normandy beaches.
As an adult, Janine Simone Hopkins was encouraged by her family to record her experiences and reflections of her life in Paris during the German occupation. Attached to Canadian and British forces, the first Americans to see ground combat in Europe witnessed disaster at Dieppe.
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