I've read lots of accounts of D-Day stating that the beaches were supposed to be heavily shelled before the invasion to create cover for the invading troops. But this never happened and soldiers were shocked to be met with a flat untouched beach with no cover.
Is it possible the beaches weren't shelled on purpose to prevent soldiers from hiding in shell holes and refusing to advance?
>>30200723
No, it's because the bombers missed that all the shells fell short into the water, making massive underwater craters to drown in.
Plus, they succeeded in this concept in places other than bloody Omaha, partially why the beach earned the reputation.
>>30200723
Allies fired a literal storm of rockets but they all did fuck all, I bet if at least half of them hit they would of had some cover.
>>30200723
I heard they purposely used the fog and the weather to slip in relatively unnoticed.
Also due to timing the tides were wrong and some of the tracks couldn't make it to shore.
If I'm wrong feel free to correct me, that's from watching ww2 documentaries as I'm falling asleep.
>>30200723
The preparatory bombardment did work on the other beaches. Omaha's bombers dropped too late and fucked over some cows. Omaha only turned once DD's and CA's got in close to use their own guns and do effective spotting.
>>30200752
Omaha is also a flat 500m sprint over a pebble beach with little to no cover. The planners knew it was going to be a bloodbath compared to the other beaches from the start.
Pic related is me standing at Dog Green, and that wasn't even at full low tied.
>>30200853
>The only artillery support for the troops making these tentative advances was from the navy. Finding targets difficult to spot, and in fear of hitting their own troops, the big guns of the battleships and cruisers concentrated fire on the flanks of the beaches. The destroyers were able to get in closer, and from 08:00 began engaging their own targets. At 09:50, two minutes after the McCook destroyed a 75 mm gun position in WN-74, the destroyers were ordered to get as close in as possible. Some approached within 1,000 yards (900 m) several times, scraping bottom and risking running aground.[55] An engineer who had landed in the first wave at Fox Red, watching the Frankford steaming in towards shore, thought she had been badly hit and was being beached. Instead, she turned parallel to the beach and cruised westwards, guns blazing at targets of opportunity. Thinking she would turn back out to sea, the engineer soon saw that she had instead begun backing up, guns still firing. At one point, gunners aboard the Frankford saw an immobilized tank at the water's edge, still firing. Watching the fall of its shot, they followed up with a salvo of their own. In this manner, the tank acted as the ship's fire control party for several minutes
>tfw you shoot your 75mm at something only to watch as the target you just fired at is hit by 4 155mm shells multiple times
Why didn't they just... Go around?
I mean fuck, you've got all this coastal shit, there has to be some massive gaping holes you could just walk through and hit the Germans from behind.
>>30200877
Omaha is a bitch while Utah is a really nice beach. You don't have these heights helping a great lot to add defensive installations.
>>30200853
>Omaha's bombers dropped too late and fucked over some cows.
You mean civilians? They also fucked up some of the shelling parts by firing too short if I what I read years ago is true, creating a nice fog blocking the field of view for the other ships.
>>30201129
>Why didn't they just... Go around?
Politics
Churchill always wanted to go through Italy, a factor in which was to take as much of eastern Europe with him before Stalin took it.
He didnt mind the soviets bleeding a little longer, since he was most distrustful of Stalin and even ordered a plan for a war against him after Hitler was beaten.
so after much begging from Stalin, and pressure from the Americans who wanted to end the war asap, the allies went for the politically most favourable location, the fastest route to Berlin.
Calais was a no go, since Jerry had fortified the shit out of it, iirc the Dutch/Belgian coast was equally defended(not to mention the highly urbanized areas behind the dunes which are a nightmare for a fast advance)
thus, France south of Calais was chosen. Brittany and Manche were rejected due to them being easily isolatable, and Seine Maritim has cliffy coasts like Pointe du Hoc had.
This left Calvados(whic contained all but one of the landing beaches, Utah) which put the allies also between two harbours, Le Havre and Cherbourg
anyway, pic related and tl;dr: shortest route because stalin wanted a second front
>>30201129
>Why didn't they just... Go around?
Because trying to move that many men and that much shit from Britain to France was already a huge bitch, now imagine if the journey was hundreds or thousands of miles longer.
>>30201129
That's what they did. The ones unlucky enough to be on boats that followed orders and assaulted the beach mostly died.
>>30201129
Because Normandy was the best place to go through. If you went up north you had to deal with Dieppe, Le Havre, Dunkirk, Calais and way harder cities to get. Shit the Germans held out in Dunkirk until VE day.
>>30201129
Is this fucking serious?!?
>>30201230
No, as in they dropped so far too late that they basically unloaded into farmer's fields, well past the town and beaches.
