In any operation of the scale of the Normandy Invasion there are going
to be mistakes. And it is also really easy to criticize 60 years after
the fact. The bottom line is that the landing worked, and did so as a
result of cooperation between the Allies. Yes the Americans decided not
to use the "funny" tanks. It should also be remembered that the British
general who invented all of the special purpose tanks had been forced
to retire from active service because the British Army didn't like his
ideas of how tanks should be employed. He was only brought back to
design such things as the flail tank when I suppose they realized they
had no one else. It is my understanding, from what I have read, that
the British had very little faith in the contraptions, but decided to
use them anyway. The American Army did learn from its mistakes and went
on to develop a number of similar devices, including one that cut
through hedgerows.

The rocket ships and the bombardment in general was not as effective as
advertised for a lot of reasons. But it has, until the recent
deployment of "smart" munitions, always been the case that both the
Navy and the Air Force repeatedl;y claimed they could destroy
fortifications. And in practice could really do little more than get
defenders in fortifications to duck. Once the fires lifted most of the
fortifications were still in action.  Another problem was that the
weather was marginal and severely hampered the air campaign.

If one wants to point fingers. Operation Market Garden  (A Bridge Too
Far) is an example of willful stupidity on the part of the British.
Intelligence knew that panzer units had moved in around Arnhem and the
British decided to ignore them. As a result the British 1 ABN was
dropped on top of two panzer divisions and got their clocks cleaned.
Even with that, had the Britsh been a bit more aggressive or
reconfigured their drop zones, the attack could have suceeded. I found
reading the book or watching the movie a painful experience, because so
many opportunities were thrown away. The Dutch Army war gamed a Market
Garden like scenario and could never get it to work. The British
thanked the Dutch for their input and ignored it. The actual campaign
played out pretty much the way the Dutch games always had.

On Aug 1, 2004, at 11:58 AM, Ron May wrote:

> Paul and others,
>
> This past week, the History Channel (public broadcasting channel) had a
> segment on the Normandy invasion with oral interviews of British
> veterans. Since my
> father survived a subsequent wave in that invasion, it interested me
> greatly
> to listen to those men explain how American generals refused to use
> British
> machines designed to rip up barbed wire and detonate land mines
> because the
> machines "looked silly." At least 2,000 men died on the shores invaded
> by
> Americans for that decision, according to the British soldiers. The
> British simply
> followed their wire-ripping machines up the beach. A second point that
> struck
> home was the demand by American generals not to allow the landing
> craft to come
> close to shore, thus requiring the American tanks to offload and
> snorkle in
> rough seas and most sank. Only a handful of American tanks made it
> ashore for the
> invasion. The British ignored the orders and the landing craft hit the
> sand,
> allowing their tanks to roll onto land. The third point that struck
> home was
> the American generals belief that ship-fired rockets would create
> craters for
> infantry to hide from German machine gun fire. For some reason, most
> of the
> rockets landed in the water or over the German lines and infantry had
> no where to
> hide because instead of sand they were digging into cobblestone shale.
> With
> these facts as seen by the British veterans, Hollywood movies like The
> Longest
> Day and Saving Private Ryan would have been substantially different. I
> also
> recall finding a reenactor's website that heavily criticized the
> latter movie
> for inaccurate uniforms for that particular battle. Of course, this
> was a war
> that is within living memory and movies like Arthur are like smoke
> when it comes
> to available facts.
>
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
>