What was really supposed to happen on D-Day? All I know is that the troops didn't get as far as they were supposed to. Excuse me, but this is not my strong point, and as far as I know the Americans were to occupy Carentan and Isigny and the British to take Caen. They did none on the first day. Besides the German defense, which I understand was very stiff, what else went wrong?
MKT, that's a very broad question. There are lots of answers. My recommendation would be to hit the local library, and pick up a book on the Normandy invasion, or one that covers from D-Day onward. I've been at work too long today to think of the best books to recommend, but OVERLORD comes to mind. I don't think it's the best one, but it's a start.
'slike I said, my strength is the east, not west. I find armies and army groups much more interesting than divisions and corps. Massive battles with two or three armies is better than minor clashes between two or three battalions, even if it is not necessarily as decisive.
There has been a massve discussion on this subject here in the forum, at a much earlier date last year. If you type in under Lycos and or google for D-Day Landing Maps you will find the objectives of each Allied force. The main armies that landed for the Allies were: USA, UK, and Canada; each comprised of approximately one third of the shock troops that landed. At the end of the first day Canadian troops were the only ones to make ALL of their D-Day objectives, not a small feat of arms. The Americans on one beach were hammered by the intact Atlantic Wall which pressed the entire beach head; lost Allied equipment and powerful defenses summarized this German threat; also the fact that the Americans refused, on this beach, the "Specials" Armour and equipment. This too is a great topic to research, they worked well for the Brits and Candians. There is a great book about the battle for Caen called "Caen, The Anvil of Victory.This will tell you about the battle by the Brits and Canadians that fought for this vital centre. Here is pretty good link if you can afford to purchase some items http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/075092 ... e&n=283155 Here are a few reference links that will be a good start http://www.forces.ca/dhh/downloads/ahq/ahq058.pdf http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/rep ... Eu-51.html http://www.angelfire.com/scary/richi/charnwood/1.pdf
None of the Allied forces made all of their D-Day objectives on day one, not even the Canadians. They did get closest to them, if we ignore 6th British Airborne division. In the end the Allies simply underestimated the tenacity of the German coastal divisions or overestimated the effect of their naval and aereal bombardments.
Roel, sigh, yes they did make it the furthest, in fact only one kilometer short of the airport just out side of Caen. Once again you amaze me, just like the the immediate denial of the size of the tank battle around Caen, then when the facts were posted you backtracked appealing to the fact you confused the numbers that took place vs the numbers destroyed. Sigh. At Juno the first wave of twenty-four hundred Canadians faced four hundred Germans whose artillery was still pulled by horses. Landing far away from their intended target, time wasn’t all that was lost. Of the twenty-four hundred men, there were 335 dead. By the end of the day though, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Sherbrooke Fusiliers were more than ten miles inward and approaching the Bayeux-Caen highway and the Carpiquet airport. http://txtx.essortment.com/ddaybeaches_rjse.htm http://www.army.mil/d-day/divisions/invasionsites.html The North Shore Regiment capture St-Aubin. In the next few hours, the Canadians capture Courseulles and Bernieres. Later the Highland Regiment captures Colombiers-sur-seulles and the 1st Hussar reaches its objective 15 kilometres from the beach at the Caen-Bayeux Highway intersection. The Hussars was the only Allied unit to capture its planned final objective on D-Day. On June 6, 1944, 340 Canadians were killed, 574 were wounded and 47 were captured at Juno Beach. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: Munro, Ross Gauntlet to Overlord: The Story of the Canadian Army Department of Veteran's Affairs U. S. National D-Day Museum CBC News Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Encyclopedia Britannica Dictionary of Canadian Military History Juno Beach Centre
I personally think the day was a massive success and that whilst the planning was great the allies had little experiance as to how things would pan out. The only opposed beach landing of this type was Dieppe which wasn't a great practise run. If this had been a river crossing assault against defended enemy lines, 100,000 troops across in the first 24 hours and 10 miles through the lines is pretty good going by all accounts. Frankly the goals that had been set were not achievable but were realistic given the information at hand. That is, they gave something the troops could really aim at but was just always outside their reach. Like a carrot and the donkey. FNG
Could somebody please list down exactly what the objectives were? The most basic objective - to secure beacheads and start moving inland - was met at all beaches.
I made an error there, and admitted you were right. This time however, I am right, and why should I not point that out? Are we not looking for the truth? The Allied D-Day objectives were as follows: - A strip of coastline from Quineville to the west side of the Douve estuary, which reached inland to include a bridgehead west of the Mederet river and all terrain north of Carentan (cutting the Caen-Cherbourg highway). - A strip of coastline from the east side of the Douve estuary to Cabourg, which reached inland to Caen in the east and a line just north of Isigny in the west. This line ran south of the Caen-Cherbourg highway, but stayed north of the Carpiquet airport. These objectives are mapped in Stephen Ambrose's "D-Day" (1994).
But none of them seems to actually list what the objectives were*, and I do not know. I would like to know. (*in fairness, http://www.army.mil/d-day/divisions/invasionsites.html might, but it comes up as 'server not found')
That site does give a fairly good map as far as I can see (compared to my source it seems a bit cautious). It does show that the Canadian objectives for D-Day included the Caen-Bayeux highway.
Found this one, and it clearly shows taht even though the Canadian forces made it to with a kilomenter of the airport they were pushed back, or were obliged to fall back. Never did I say they kept them, in fact we all know how the German armour made it to the Normandy coast during the battle for Normandy. http://www.britannica.com/dday/article-9389940
