Transcript Lsn 26 World War II

World War II: Normandy
Lesson 26
ID & SIG:
• airborne forces, amphibious forces,
coalition warfare, Cobra, Eisenhower,
mass, Montgomery, objective, Rommel,
Runstedt, surprise
Early Planning
• In Sept 1941, British Prime
Minister Churchill ordered his
planners to, “prepare for the
invasion of Europe… You
must devise and design the
appliances, the landing craft,
and the technique… The
whole of the South Coast of
England is a bastion of
defense against the invasion
of Hitler; you’ve got to turn it
into the springboard for your
attack.”
• The British drafted a
proposal, code named
Roundup, for an attack
across the English Channel
Early Planning
• The Americans developed a
proposal, code named Bolero,
for the establishment in Britain
of a million man force trained
and equipped for an invasion
tentatively scheduled for 1943
• In the meantime however, both
the Americans and British
agreed that the Allies should
concentrate on wearing down
Germany’s resistance through
air attacks, operations along
the North African coast, and
assistance to the Soviet Union
Winston Churchill observed,
“Sometimes I think the whole
war depends on some
damned thing called an LST.”
Early Planning
• At a series of
conferences– Casablanca,
Quebec, Cairo, and
Tehran– the Allies honed
their strategy
• It soon became apparent
however that there was a
difference of opinion about
this idea of wearing down
German resistance
– The British favored a
peripheral strategy
while the Americans
thought the proper
course was a direct
assault that would mass
the Allied resources
Some Reasons for the Differences
• Americans
– Had vast resources
available
– Had suffered relatively few
casualties in World War I
– Had not suffered the
disaster at Dunkirk in World
War II
• British
– Had lost an entire
generation in World War I
– Had conducted amphibious
peripheral operations,
albeit unsuccessfully, at
Gallipoli in World War I
– Had already borne heavy
losses in World War II,
including at Dieppe
– Churchill cautioned that, if
conducted prematurely, the
channel would be “choked
with the bodies of the
flower of American and
British manhood”
Result
• Although the British agreed in
principle to the cross-channel
invasion they nonetheless shifted
resources away from the project;
first to North Africa and then to Italy
• Without the necessary landing
craft, ships, and planes for a crosschannel attack, the Americans had
no choice but to go along
• Pressure from Stalin to open up a
second front gave the Americans
additional leverage
Eisenhower
• One of the tangible ways to
show Stalin progress was
being made on the invasion
planning was to appoint a
supreme commander
• By this point in the war, the
American contribution had
surpassed the British one, so
the post would go to an
American
• George Marshall was strongly
considered but Roosevelt felt
Marshall’s presence in
Washington to be critical so
Dwight Eisenhower got the job
As Army Chief of Staff,
Marshall was credited by
Churchill as being the
“organizer of victory”
Unity of Command
• To accommodate British
sensitivities, Eisenhower
selected his principal
commanders from the
British
– Tedder (British)
• Deputy
– Ramsey (British)
• Naval
– Leigh-Mallory (British)
• Air
– Bradley (US) and
Montgomery (British)
• Ground
Unity of Command: German
Defenses
• Debate between
Rundstedt and
Rommel over
whether to deny
the initial landing
on the beaches
or to destroy
them with strong,
mobile counter
attack forces
Rundstedt
Rommel
German Defenses: Rommel’s Plan
• Rommel was
appointed
commander of Army
Group B in 1943
– Began to reinforce
the Atlantic Wall in
order to immediately
and absolutely
defeat any Allied
landings
Weakness of Rommel’s Plan
• Atlantic Wall had
no true depth to
its defenses
• An enemy force
that breached the
thin Atlantic Wall
would face no
further fortified
positions of
significance
German Defenses
German Defenses: Rundstedt’s
Plan
• Rundstedt, the overall
commander in the west, placed
great reliance on mechanized
reserves that could respond
quickly and flexibly to an enemy
penetration
– He stationed a newly created
armored command, Panzer
Group West, near Paris
– From there, the force could
move toward the site of an
enemy assault in either Pas
de Calais or Normandy
Weakness of Rundstedt’s Plan
• Rundstedt lacked the authority he
needed
– Hitler exercised direct control over
Rundstedt’s forces
– The navy commanded most of the
coastal artillery that would be
called upon to repel an Allied
attack.
– The air force controlled the bulk of
the antiaircraft and parachute units
stationed in the region.
– Some armor units also came under
the administrative supervision of
the SS which answered first to
Hitler and Berlin rather than to its
supposed commanders in the field.
Hitler’s “Wolf’s Lair”
Headquarters in Gierłoż
German Defenses:
Compromise
• Rundstedt and Rommel couldn’t
settle their disagreement over
which defensive strategy was
best so they compromised and
combined the two plans
• This resulted in the worst of
both
– Beach defenses not strong
enough to stop landing;
reserves not strong enough
to destroy the beachhead
Rommel inspecting the
beach defenses
Operation Overlord
• At the Trident Conference
the Allies had agreed to plan
for a cross-channel invasion
in May 1944
• The planners rejected Pas
de Calais as being too
obvious a choice and
instead selected Normandy
• However they would mount
a significant deception
campaign to convince the
Germans Pas de Calais was
the intended landing site
Surprise
• “… it is more effective to find out what the
enemy is predisposed to believe and to reinforce
those beliefs while at the same time altering your
plans to take advantage of these reinforced false
beliefs.” (John Chomeau)
– Fictitious army
– Inflatable tanks
– Targets
– Ultra
– Weather
Surprise: Fictitious Army
• By spurious radio transmissions,
the Allies created an entire
phantom army, “based” in
southeast England (opposite Pas
de Calais) and alleged to be
commanded by Patton.
– In addition, on the night of the
invasion itself, airborne radar
deception presented to German radar
stations a “phantom” picture of an
invasion fleet crossing the Channel
narrows, while a radar blackout
disguised the real transit to
Normandy.
Inflatable Tanks
Surprise: Ultra
• At the same time, through
the top-secret Ultra
operation, the Allies were
able to decode encrypted
German transmissions,
thus providing the Overlord
forces with a clear picture
of where the German
counterattack forces were
deployed.
Surprise: Targets
• The air campaign was designed not
only to disrupt German anti-invasion
preparations but also to serve as a
deception operation.
– Two-thirds of the bombs were dropped
outside the invasion area, in an attempt to
persuade the enemy that the landings
would be made northeast of the Seine,
particularly in the Pas de Calais area,
rather than in Normandy.
Surprise: Weather
• Germans had a false
sense of security
about the weather
• Rommel was visiting
his wife on D-Day
– “There is not going to
be an invasion. And
if there is, then they
won’t even get off the
beaches!”
Allied Plan
• The Allied plan would involve amphibious landings on
the Normandy beaches supported by airborne assaults
behind the beaches to block German counterattacks
Airborne Forces
• The American 82nd and
101st Airborne Divisions
jumped over the Cotentin
Peninsula to secure the
exits from the
westernmost American
Beach of Utah
• The British 6th Airborne
Division dropped on the
eastern flank to capture
the crossings over the
River Orne and the Canal
de Caen
Pegasus Bridge and Point du Hoc
• A special glider force
from the 6th Airborne
captured the crucial
Pegasus Bridge over
the canal and the Orne
• American Rangers
secured the cliffs of
Pointe du Hoc where
there was expected to
be a massive German
coastal battery
Major John Howard led the
British glider unit that secured
Pegasus Bridge
Caen
• The capture of Pegasus
Bridge was designed to
block German
counterattacks and give
the British an exit into the
open country to the east of
Caen
• The Operation Overlord
plan called for the British
to capture Caen, about ten
miles inland, on D-Day
• Instead the attack stalled
German Defense
• Although Rommel had been unable to
prevent the Allies from establishing a
beachhead like he had hoped, he
continued his strategy of a static defense
to hold them to their initial landing area
• On June 11 Hitler issued an order
forbidding any withdrawals
• The stiff German resistance inland caught
the Allies by surprise
Breakout: Planning
• Allied planners had
assumed the Germans
would withdraw toward the
Seine River and fight a
delay along the river’s lines
• Consequently, the planning
had focused on the
challenges of getting ashore
rather than subsequent
operations
• The Allies were also
unprepared for the
challenges presented by the
bocage country
Bocage: Result
• The restrictive nature
of the bocage
required an average
of five Americans to
displace one German
– The normal planning
figure was three to one
Breakout: Ingenuity
Breakout: Allied Friction
• In addition to the terrain and determined
German resistance, Allied breakout efforts were
hindered by:
– A lack of a sense of urgency on Montgomery’s part
– A terrible storm which hit the English Channel June
19-21 and temporarily damaged the logistics buildup
• Two distinct battles soon developed in
Normandy with the British and Canadians
fighting in the east and the Americans in the
west
Limited Gains
• By July the Allies had a beachhead 70 miles wide, but
except for Cherbourg, their lodgment was in no place
more than 25 miles deep and in most areas was little
more than five miles
Breakout: Carpet Bombing
• The narrow Allied beachhead
and the slower than
expected advance inland
bread fears of a stalemate
• One attempt to breakout was
Operation Charnwood
• On July 7 the RAF Bomber
Command dropped 2,300
tons of bombs on the
northern outskirts of Caen
• This technique of carpet
bombing relied on mass
rather than precision
Breakout: Carpet Bombing
• The bombing caused
huge German
casualties but also
missed many
German defensive
positions and heavily
damaged Caen’s
infrastructure
• By July 9 the Allies
controlled Caen north
of the River Orne, but
could go no further
• Nonetheless the
initiative was shifting British soldiers amid the wreckage in Caen
to the Allies
Breakout: Operations Goodwood
and Cobra
• On July 18 the British
attempted a large breakout in
their sector called Operation
Goodwood
• The Americans planned to
launch their own breakout,
Operation Cobra, the next
day, but it would be delayed
by bad weather
• Montgomery’s intentions for
the exact relationship
between these two
operations is the subject of
some conjecture, but the end
result was that it worked
Breakout: Operations Goodwood
and Cobra
• Operation Goodwood began with a two hour
aerial bombardment
• Montgomery seemed overly reliant on air power
• Montgomery’s slow pace greatly frustrated
Eisenhower who complained that by July 20
Montgomery had advanced just seven miles at
the rate of a thousand tons of bombs a mile
• Still Goodwood drew reinforcements to the
British sector which facilitated the American
attack
Breakout: Operations Goodwood
and Cobra
• The British now had three
armored, ten infantry, and
one airborne division
facing seven armored and
six infantry divisions
• The Americans had four
armored and thirteen
infantry divisions facing
two armored, one
mechanized, three
infantry, one airlanding,
and two parachute
divisions
Breakout: Mass
• The Allies were able to effect a
massive build up of forces after
the initial landing
• The logistical operation was
made possible by Mulberry
artificial harbors and Whale
floating piers
Breakout: Operations Goodwood
and Cobra
• After several weather
delays Operation Cobra
began on July 25 with a
massive bombing
campaign
• Several bombs fell short,
causing much fratricide
including the death of
Lieutenant General Lesley
McNair, the highest ranking
Allied officer killed in
Europe
• Unlike the British attack the
Americans had sufficient
ground forces to follow
through after the air
bombardment
As commander of the Army
Ground Forces, McNair was
responsible for the organization,
training and preparation of the
Army for overseas service
Breakout: Operations Goodwood
and Cobra
• The breakthrough
began on July 27
• On Aug 1, Patton’s
Third Army officially
became operational
and within 24 hours
Patton passed four
divisions through
Avranches, out of the
bocage, and on to the
roads to France
The Breakout
• http://www3.sympatico.ca/angels_eight/ca
mpaign.html
The Allied Soldier
The Allied Soldier
At low tide, the
assaulting troops had to
cross more than 300
meters of completely
exposed beach to gain
entrance to the Vierville
draw.
506th PIR Drop Dispersal
The Allied Soldier
• The Germans
launched no tactical
counteroffensives
against the American
airborne assault.
• American
paratroopers gathered
in ad hoc small groups
and executed
operations in
accordance with the
commander’s intent.
– SLA Marshall
The German Soldier
• “… the performance of the Wehrmacht’s high
command, middle-ranking soldiers, and junior officers
was just pathetic. The cause is simply put: they were
afraid to take the initiative. They allowed themselves
to be paralyzed by stupid orders coming from far
away that bore no relation to the situation on the
battlefield. Tank commanders who knew where the
enemy was and how and when he should be
attacked sat in their headquarters through the day,
waiting for the high command in Berchtesgaden to
tell them what to do.”
• Stephen Ambrose
How it Ends
• July 25: Beginning of
Operation Cobra
• Aug 15: Operational Anvil
landings in southern France
• Sept 17: Operational Market
Garden
• Dec 16: Beginning of the Battle
of the Bulge
• Apr 20, 1945: Russians take
Berlin
• Apr 25: Americans and
Russians meet at the Elbe
River
• Apr 30: Hitler commits suicide
Surrender of Germany
Next
• World War II: Pacific and Beginnings of the
Cold War