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Title: Remembering D-Day
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URL Source: http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-arlington/remembering-d-day
Published: Jun 6, 2011
Author: Christopher Coughlin
Post Date: 2011-06-06 16:21:26 by Mad Dog
Keywords: 6, JUNE, 1944
Views: 38412
Comments: 65
Today is the 67th anniversary of the Anglo-American landings at Normandy on D-Day. Like a well told tale, the invasion of France has become lore. Movies such as “Saving Private Ryan” and the HBO series “Band of Brothers” provide a reference point to the violence of war. But as we watch these scenes, we are all Monday morning quarterbacks; knowing how history played out, and that the sacrifices on the field of battle cumulatively led to victory. But the people fighting those battles six decades ago didn’t know that. For them, how the war would end was very much an open question. How they acted and what they did, was the ultimate tool of decision. Indeed, at crucial points during the war, battles turned on the actions of individuals, and those battles determined the course of the war. It was a very near thing indeed. History shows that on June 6, 1944, 160,000 US and allied troops were involved in Operation Overlord, the code name for the invasion of Europe. It was and remains the largest amphibious operation in history. June 6th was also expected to be one of the most lethal days for US troops in American history, with carnage unheard of since the American Civil War. Allied high command was so concerned about the anticipated, epic levels of violence, destruction and death that would meet the first wave of troops that they were reluctant to assign veterans of other invasions, fearing the men would be overwhelmed and break down. As a result, two of the three US divisions assigned to hit the beaches at Normandy had never been in combat. And as history turned out, the high command's expectations of violence were more than justified. At Omaha Beach, the US 1stand 29thInfantry Divisions, and the 2ndand 5thRanger Battalions, faced the veteran German 352ndInfantry Division, one of the best trained units in the German army. Through acts of commission and omission, the majority of the allied landing craft missed their assigned sectors on Omaha Beach, causing confusion, and in some instances, landing American troops directly in front of German machine gunners. As a result, casualties among the first wave of trooops were nothing short of catastrophic, where surviving American soliders were leaderless, isolated and traumatized by the violence surrounding them. The situation was so grave that senior commanders considered abandoning Omaha altogether. But from the unspeakable carnage came a profound courage. Slowly, small units of infantry, based on nothing more than individual initiative and survival instinct, formed up as ad hoc groups, and began to move the 1,000 yards off the beach to dunes to take on the German pillboxes and establish an allied foothold in Europe. It was at that critical time of decision that Lt Walter Taylor, Company B (or Baker), 116thInfantry, of the 29thDivision, landed with the second wave. Coming ashore, Taylor didn’t know that his commanding officers were already dead. But, seeing the chaos, Taylor immediately took the initiative. He led a group of men off the beach, crawling past the obstacles, barbed wire and mine fields, and eventually over the sea wall. He continued to lead his men straight up the bluff and into the town of Vierville, where he engaged the Germans in a two-hour fire fight, and won without losing a man. It was only later, meeting up with other elements of Baker Company, that Taylor realized that he was in command. The sergeant did a head count – there are only 28 men out of the original 240. Undeterred, Taylor proceeded to lead the 28 men inland against an imposing German fortification with rock walls and artillery proof tunnels. Taylor engaged the Germans there and continued the fight throughout the day, leading a force mixed from his company and several Rangers, trying to reach goals outlined in the Overlord plan for Day 1. This despite the fact, borne out on Normandy, that no battle plan survives the beginning of the battle. By nightfall, Taylor and his men made camp near the village of Louvieres. An allied runner found them with a message to fall back to meet up with the remnants of the battalion, closer to the sea. Taylor had led his men to a place a half a mile ahead of the rest of the United States Army in Europe. It was an incredible accomplishment. The violence visited upon US troops landing in France was an experience beyond the confines of common human understanding. Consider that after ten years of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, US forces have suffered 6,059 combat deaths. By contrast, the US Army Center for Military History estimates that US troops suffered 6,036 causalities on D-Day alone. Yet despite the violence and destruction, a handful of men, like Taylor, marched on, took initiative and carried the day. Time and again, when the odds have been daunting, individual American courage, determination and resourcefulness have been the common element in uncommon valor; valor that has decided the course of history. For his efforts on June 6th, Lt. Taylor was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The accompanying citation states, “Second Lieutenant Taylor's intrepid actions, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, the 29th Infantry Division, and the United States Army.” As a nation, we are continually blessed to have such men and women. As for Taylor himself, he survived the war. He passed on April 17, 2003, a retiree of the Baltimore Police Department. May God bless him and all those who fought, sacrificed and died on that terrible day so that Europe could be whole and free.
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#9. To: Mad Dog (#0)
D-Day: Afternoon on Omaha Beach What Hitler Did Wrong Converted for the Web from "D-Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II" by Stephen E. Ambrose excerpts: Third, the German command structure was a disaster. Hitler's mistrust of his generals and the generals' mistrust of Hitler were worth a king's ransom to the Allies. So were Hitler's sleeping habits, as well as his Wolkenkuckucksheim ideas. The only high-command officer who responded correctly to the crisis at hand was Field Marshal Rundstedt, the old man who was there for window dressing and who was so scorned by Hitler and OKW. Two hours before the seaborne landings began, he ordered the two reserve panzer divisions available for counterattack in Normandy, the 12th SS Panzer and Panzer Lehr, to move immediately toward Caen. He did so on the basis of an intuitive judgment that the airborne landings were on such a large scale that they could not be a mere deception maneuver (as some of his staff argued) and would have to be reinforced from the sea. The only place such landings could come in lower Normandy were on the Calvados and Cotentin coasts. He wanted armor there to meet the attack. Rundstedt's reasoning was sound, his action decisive, his orders clear. But the panzer divisions were not under his command. They were in OKW reserve. To save precious time, Rundstedt had first ordered them to move out, then requested OKW approval. OKW did not approve. At 0730 Jodi informed Rundstedt that the two divisions could not be committed until Hitler gave the order, and Hitler was still sleeping. Rundstedt had to countermand the move-out order. Hitler slept until noon. The two panzer divisions spent the morning waiting. There was a heavy overcast; they could have moved out free from serious interference from Allied aircraft. It was 1600 when Hitler at last gave his approval. By then the clouds had broken up and Allied fighters and bombers ranged the skies over Normandy, smashing anything that moved. The panzers had to crawl into roadside woods and wait under cover for darkness before continuing their march to the sound of the guns.[end] Parrot: Its amazing when one considers the numeric of heavy German Armor,towed 88's and other effective weapons which were scattered everywhere's it seems in France and not in action for days and days. Parrot: Cooper is quite critical of Gen Patton for pushing the M4 as the US main battletank. Parrot: Criticism and short commings aside,.....US tank crews understood the gravity of what they were up against,....and most kept at it day in and day out while their Platoons were decimated. These men were everything in the statement.....The greatest Generation
I knew a man when I was a kid who was with Patton all through the war. He was a tank driver and the stories he told were pretty terrible. They overcame through blood sweat and tears, and BRAVERY, and PERSEVERANCE. THEY were indeed, the GREATEST Generation.
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Allied Airpower did maul them,......the first Sherman tanks Platoons inland in the weeks following saw high attrition rates.
The allies were making ground,...but it was damned costly to say the least.
excerpt from 3rd Armor website [http://www.3ad.com/history/wwll/feature.pages/ death.traps.htm]
Tabulating the results of this mismatch, Cooper highlights the staggering cost of the Army's flawed choice for its main battle tank. Over the next 11 months, the Third Armored Division, which began the Normandy campaign with 232 M4 tanks, would see 648 of its Shermans destroyed in combat, with another 700 knocked out of commission before being repaired and returned to service - a cumulative loss rate of 580 percent. Casualties among tank crews also skyrocketed, producing an acute shortage of qualified personnel. By late 1944, Cooper recalls, the Army was sending newly arrived infantrymen into combat as replacement tank crews. Some of these recruits received only one day of armor training before being dispatched to the front in their M4s.[end]
His coment:he "has seen more knocked out tanks than any other living American." His eyewitness observations confirmed what American tank crews discovered in combat: the Sherman was badly outclassed by German medium and heavy tanks, most notably the Mark V Panther and the Mark VI Tiger. With their heavier armor, the Panther and Tiger were almost impervious to rounds fired from the Sherman's 75 or 76 mm main gun; conversely, the 88 mm gun on the German tanks usually made short work of their American opponents.[end]
#16. To: Parrot with speed dial (#9)
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