Some D-Day facts

[Tex1001]

The French from the Normandy region are forever grateful to the allies for their liberation.

Take a close look at those photos of allied cemeteries in France and Belgium. The headstones still look like new and the lawns are manicured with fingernail clippers. They don't clean up the graves just for special events, they consider their upkeep a 366 days per year a solemn responsibility.
Grateful indeed!
_______________________
I don't have Alzheimer's- My wife had me tested.

 

[cmort666]

Sir,

That may be, but I listened to a WW2 fighter pilot on a video say that they took out Tiger tanks by firing at the road underneath them and the ricocheting rounds penetrated their undercarriage. Also I've seen footage from their gun cameras which shows them hitting the fuel trailers the tanks were pulling, along with personnel carriers, trucks hauling ammunition, etc. travelling French and German roads. It looks like they used their tracer rounds to get on target. Couldn't they have done that with the bunkers also?

There is a WORLD of difference between hitting a tank (not that easy either) and hitting a gun slit in a bunker.

Very few guns carried by fighter-bombers were going to do any meaningful damage to a bunker (especially THOSE bunkers) absent a shot through an aperture. The British had a few 45mm auto-cannon mounted on fighter-bombers, but I don't know if any were present at D-Day. We had 75mm guns mounted on B-25s, but I don't think ANY were present at D-Day.

Absent napalm, what might have made a difference would have been some version of a fuel-air bomb. These work in a manner similar to a grain elevator explosion. Things like coal dust or aluminum powder would have been used back then. They might have used up the breathable air in bunkers with a near miss.

"Earthquake" type bombs, like Grand Slam and Tallboy might well have collapsed the bunkers, but I don't think any were used at Normandy. I'm not sure if they'd been fielded yet. They were later used on the German U-Boat pens in France, as well as the V-3 and fixed V-2 sites. They did sink the Tirpitz.

Many people have an unrealistic idea of the accuracy of air delivered weapons during WWII, largely based on watching Gulf War bombing videos. Hence, the inane criticism of the bombings of German and Japanese cities, when there was no alternative apart from surrender.

 

[Gamecock]

Sir,

That may be, but I listened to a WW2 fighter pilot on a video say that they took out Tiger tanks by firing at the road underneath them and the ricocheting rounds penetrated their undercarriage. Also I've seen footage from their gun cameras which shows them hitting the fuel trailers the tanks were pulling, along with personnel carriers, trucks hauling ammunition, etc. travelling French and German roads. It looks like they used their tracer rounds to get on target. Couldn't they have done that with the bunkers also?

I'm not trying to be difficult here, just wanting to learn things.

Regards,
Andy

Was all this fancy shooting at night?

Bombardment of the landing areas didn't begin until the early morning of D-Day. Low clouds obscured the the Omaha Beach targets.

The Allies didn't want to tip their hand as to where the landing was going to occur. The Germans expected Pas de Calais, and the Allies were happy to keep the Germans thinking that.

 

[wbraswell]

I don't think anything that our P-51s and P-47s could carry would have any significant effect on those bunkers. I saw about our DUKs loaded down and carrying a 105mm howitzer, would start to sink as soon as they were launched. I wonder how many of our losses were just drownings.

 

[nodpete]

If you ever get the chance to visit that area, go to the US war museum at Bayeux, France. They show a movie that is shown on a split screen, of the landing. One side was filmed by the Allies and the other was filmed by the Germans. You get to see what both sides did. It is one of the most fascinating films I've ever seen.

 

[the ringo kid]

In the early stages of D-Day, I don't think there was air cover bacause of the weather. Like was said above, most the naval bombardment went over the machine gun nests. I don't know if I have ever heard of napalm bombs used in Europe, only in the later invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. While 10,000 KIA on D-Day seems a lot, I think the Allied brass expected worse. Over 15,000 more were lost before the breakout, fighting in the towns and hedgerows. PT boats would have been sitting ducks since they wouldn't be able to maneuver through all the landing craft.

Mostly true. The Germans actually had two Messerschmidts that flew over the beaches strafing. One was flown by Major "Pips"Priller and his wingman.They flew one mission over the beaches strafing a section of each beach--starting with Utah and Omaha.

He was famed for saying something like:"The Luftwaffe has done its part--lets go home." Major Priller was hated by Goring and most of the uppercrust of their nazi society. Gee, I wonder why????

 

[the ringo kid]

I just looked him up on Wiki, and he was a Canadian who was in an Artillery officer role, and landed on Juno beach on D-Day. He killed two snipers but was wounded by a Canadian Bren gunner who was overzealous in the dark. He did lose one finger as well as having other wounds. He became a flying artillery officer and was somewhat daring as a pilot.

He had many acting roles, and the Wiki entry is well worth reading. BTW, he had a longstanding feud with fellow Canadian actor Wm. Shatner. He was quoted as saying that he liked Capt. Kirk, but not Bill.

Born in Vancouver, he faked many accents. One was the Scots one for, Star Trek.

Royal Artillery eh? I may have crossed him with Sean Connery who I had read somewhere--also served and might have been an Engineer? Also, ill briefly keep on Start Trek stuf--watch for a thread about Steve McQueen and Hell Is For Heroes. I noticed somehting and found a Star Trek actor in it who is not billed as being in that movie.

 

[REM 3200]

Sorry, Sean Connery wasn't born until 1930 making him 9 years old when WWll started in 1939.

 

[Texas Star]

Mostly true. The Germans actually had two Messerschmidts that flew over the beaches strafing. One was flown by Major "Pips"Priller and his wingman.They flew one mission over the beaches strafing a section of each beach--starting with Utah and Omaha.

He was famed for saying something like:"The Luftwaffe has done its part--lets go home." Major Priller was hated by Goring and most of the uppercrust of their nazi society. Gee, I wonder why????

I read Priller's comment and believe that they used FW-190's, not ME-109's. Just one pass, with the two fighters strafing, and then they had to get away before Allied planes caught them. Allied airpower was very heavy around those beaches.

Gen. Doolittle checked the beaches aerially from a P-38. He flew that because the silhouette was so distinctive that it was unlikely that he'd be mistaken for a German and draw Allied fire.