Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air, and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.Ike had it ready.
But, as we all know, the D-Day landings of Operation Neptune, seventy years ago today, the largest amphibious assault in history, were successful, though at a cost. Over 4,000 Allied soldiers, airmen and sailors were killed on this day in 1944.
The Germans were then truly fighting a two-front war.
9 comments:
Thankfully, it was never used... But it was planned for...
Hard to imagine that the brass would man up like that these days.
Its a sign of a man that was clear in his thinking and understood the gravity and size of the undertaking about to take place.
The shear number of plans that had to execute and the incredible amount of men, machinery, and its supporting material is still an amazing event.
Think on it. Tens of thousands of men landed and within 24 to 36 hours would need everything from
medical support, meals to dry socks and TP. Enormous will power.
Eck!
It's always been amazing to me how many people, left-right-n-center, viewed Ike as some kind of doddering incompetent. And that wasn't confined to Stevenson dreamers and Taft worshipers. A good number of political gurus also dumped on him for being a political knownothing, somehow overlooking the expert way he threaded the politics of the Army hierarchy.
Not just the Army. Ike had to deal with Bernard Montgomery (who thought that he should have been in charge) and Charles de Gaulle (who probably should have been taken to a deserted barn, executed and buried in a manure pile).
somewhat in defense of de Gaulle he had a good understanding of the limits of power when he noted the futility of trying to govern a nation that had 400 kinds of cheese, each better than all of the others
At least he knew the consequences:
"War is mankind's most tragic and stupid folly; to seek or advise its deliberate provocation is a black crime against all men. Though you follow the trade of the warrior, you do so in the spirit of Washington — not of Genghis Khan. For Americans, only threat to our way of life justifies resort to conflict."Graduation Exercises at the United States Military Academy at West Pont, New York, USA at 3 June 1947
Would that those who followed him had listened.
Bear
Just to point out something, there was already a second front in Italy, and plans were being made for an invasion of the south of France later in the year. An invasion of the north of France was clearly easier though.
The biggest repercussion is that the Germans had to swiftly move some units from the Eastern front rapidly in order to confront the new threat in their rear. The Soviets were advancing into Poland so they couldn't withdraw units from there, so instead they withdrew units from Romania, where the Soviets weren't doing squat at the time. Big mistake. The Soviets saw that suddenly there were fewer troops in Romania, shifted gears, shifted a shitload of troops to the South, and conquered Romania within three months. That basically was the end of the war for the Germans since Romania was their oil supply other than the limited amounts they could get via coal liquefaction, they were then stuck trying to take on highly mechanized armies and air forces with nothing more than foot soldiers since their tanks were useless without fuel, though it took them over half a year and the suicide of Adolph Hitler to realize that.
Still, the Soviets would have shifted gears to Romania anyhow after they'd finished grinding down the northern armies and gotten to the borders of Germany proper, because it was the obvious next step once they'd eliminated the German bubble into territory they controlled. So at best this reduced the length of the war by six months. Of course, the surrender terms at the end of the war would likely have been even more favorable to the Soviets than they already were... probably nothing north of Italy and east of France would have ended up in Western hands. But we'll never know what would have happened, thankfully.
Compared to the Eastern front, the Italian front was a series of skirmishes. I'm pretty sure that the Soviets regarded it that way.
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