How Operation Overlord Went So Well For The Allies

why the germans didnt stop the allies at the beaches ? was the luftwaffe finished by that time ?

im trying to understand why the D Day landings went so well and how the allied gain so much territory in the beggining of the campaign .

why the germans didnt stop the allies at the beaches ? was the luftwaffe finished by that time ?

im trying to understand why the D Day landings went so well and how the allied gain so much territory in the beggining of the campaign .

From what I remember, Hitler believed that the invasion was coming around the Pas de Calais (Narrowest point between France and Britain. Strong forces and fortifications were centered there.

Additionally, the panzer divisions were stationed further away and Rommels request to dispatch them closer to the landing areas after d-day were denied. On top of that, allied and resistance forces carried out various demolition attacks against railway and infrastructure objects prior to the landing itself. This made the movement of troops much more difficult.

Allied air supremacy due to shortages at the Luftwaffe (Lack of fuel and experienced airmen) limited german troop movements to within night hours, as daylight movements were quickly attacked by aircraft.

pff that was the biggest landing operation till this date.

If u are player it is like in starcraft Zergs attack (forgive me veterans)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbeoSPqRs4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZs442oqxA


as man says axis were heavily outnumbered.

During landing Axis lost 1 thousand men Alies 12 thousand.(first 24 hours)

After THIS Westernd mass media propaganda shows to the all world that Sovets were throwing soldier's body vs the german machine guns.

why the germans didnt stop the allies at the beaches ? was the luftwaffe finished by that time ?

im trying to understand why the D Day landings went so well and how the allied gain so much territory in the beggining of the campaign .

Firstly its worth noting that the allies did not take much territory initially - the beachhead was as narrow as 8 miles at points until the breakout 6 weeks later though they did take the contentin peninsula by cutting off its base during those weeks. As other posters mentioned they did it with overwhelming force - they had air supremacy and also the coast allowed massive fire support from the fleet including 15 inch guns whilst the fighting was within 15 miles or so of the coast.

The beach defences were never going to hold a large force of this nature for long - the Germans had had to fortify hundreds of miles due to the uncertain nature of the attack point. The plan was always to use German mobile forces to push off any attack but it had to happen within 24-48 hours before too much forces got ashore.

As German buckeye mentioned the German panzer divisions were spread out and came very late to the attack for a number of reasons. Operation mincemeat using a double agent convinced the Germans that Normandy was a diversion for the real attack at Calais - The divisions there remained in place for weeks waiting for this. On the day nearby units were late moving as only Hitler could give permission for them to move and he was in bed till midday and his staff refused to wake him. The bad weather that almost cancelled the operation also meant that the Germans thought it wouldnt happen then - Rommel had gone home to Germany for his wifes birthday. The only German panzer division (at Caen that did respond) set off late in the day firstly went the wrong side of the river Orne (until they discovered that commandos held the Pegasus bridge - drove back through Caen but when they did attack they broke through the coast splitting the beach head. However they panicked and withdrew.

After that it was too late.

So essentially massive and thorough preparation in both forces but also intelligence and deception combined with poor German command structure and some strokes of luck on the day made it happen the way it did. Plus of course that the Germans army and airforce and infrastructure as a whole had been depleted bythe Soviets and allied bombing and unlike the allies they had neither the manpower of the industrial capacity to replace the losses

Short story long, work of resistance, bombing on Pas de calais,Arrogance of hitler who thinked that allies would land on pas de calais, and the first radio signal of the landing (Paratroopers attack) was completely ignored

By all measures D-Day went extremely well and that is despite many mistakes having been made. Allied naval shelling and aerial bombardment of the beaches was completely off target. At the US beaches units came ashore at the wrong locations. The seas were on the rougher side of what was acceptable (and hence almost all the DD Shermans floundered and sank). Paratroopers missed their drop zones sometimes by many miles and landed far from their own units.

But much more fundamental things went right:

- Operational surprise of both the date and location was achieved.
- Landing operations had been well rehearsed.
- Air superiority had been achieved over all of France and air supremacy over the beachheads.
- Tremendous planning and effort went into preparing to continue landing operations and supply to increase and supply hundreds of thousands of troops.

The allies were very unsure of success. 80% casualties were expected amongst the airborne even in a success.

not much of this has to do with the German response. Under any circumstances the Panzers could not have arrived before midday and by then the beachheads were established.

Frankly I don't think there is anything in these circumstances that could have saved the Germans. They were doomed from the start. Even the largest allied blunder of Normandy (in my opinion), the lack of preparation for battle in the Bocage, didn't do more than delay the allies for a few weeks. They were not going to be able to put up the kind of defense needed to stop what the allies could land on the beaches and bring to bear, not under the protection of allied air support.

Frankly I don't think there is anything in these circumstances that could have saved the Germans. They were doomed from the start. Even the largest allied blunder of Normandy (in my opinion), the lack of preparation for battle in the Bocage, didn't do more than delay the allies for a few weeks. They were not going to be able to put up the kind of defense needed to stop what the allies could land on the beaches and bring to bear, not under the protection of allied air support.

My reading of it is that early German armour in force would have been a major problem . The air supremacy was in fact not that useful in regards to tanks - obviously it could spot them and all soft skinned support vehicles were vulnerable to strafes but tanks were mostly immune to anything but bombs. I believe that the typhoon anti-tank rockets had a hit rate of about 1%. Contrary to popular belief the vast majority of German armour was destroyed by ground forces including in the famous Mortain counterattack. Having said this heavy bombers and naval fire were effective against static tank concentrations and the navy might have been able to break up any large scale armoured counterattack - though they didn't stop the 21st Panzer division on the day

Therefore I think the delays to armour were important after all the Germans did keep bringing them into the fight after the beach head was established and they helped hold the line for 6 weeks- what they were unable to do was assemble them in a large striking force behind the lines for a co-ordinated attack that might have broken the beachhead - Allied pressure and presumably dealys meant that all reinforcements were fed in piecemeal. I recall one particular case of tigers already in France but the resistance had drained the oil from the train bogey axles and replaced it with abrasive powder and the train seized up - in the end they took 3 weeks to reach the battle.

My reading of it is that early German armour in force would have been a major problem . The air supremacy was in fact not that useful in regards to tanks - obviously it could spot them and all soft skinned support vehicles were vulnerable to strafes but tanks were mostly immune to anything but bombs. I believe that the typhoon anti-tank rockets had a hit rate of about 1%. Contrary to popular belief the vast majority of German armour was destroyed by ground forces including in the famous Mortain counterattack. Having said this heavy bombers and naval fire were effective against static tank concentrations and the navy might have been able to break up any large scale armoured counterattack - though they didn't stop the 21st Panzer division on the day

Therefore I think the delays to armour were important after all the Germans did keep bringing them into the fight after the beach head was established and they helped hold the line for 6 weeks- what they were unable to do was assemble them in a large striking force behind the lines for a co-ordinated attack that might have broken the beachhead - Allied pressure and presumably dealys meant that all reinforcements were fed in piecemeal. I recall one particular case of tigers already in France but the resistance had drained the oil from the train bogey axles and replaced it with abrasive powder and the train seized up - in the end they took 3 weeks to reach the battle.

Fair points all, but you don't need to kill the tanks to stop a tank formation. They are so vulnerable without the soft support that they verge on useless. "soft support" isn't just spare parts and supply units, it is fuel, supporting infantry and artillery, ammunition. All things a tank force in combat consumes in large quantities and without which renders them ineffective. In fact the vulnerability of the soft targets have a great deal to do with the piecemeal nature of the German response.

Also, the same factors that slowed the allies in those first 6 weeks also hampered any German counteroffensives. The Bocage, for which the US was unprepared, was ideal for defense and was going to hamper counteroffensives. The British attempts to break defenses around Caen would have been not unlike any attempt to try and break the ring (ground, air and naval) around the beachheads.

As to piecemeal..... If all you have is all you got then that is what you use. Had they not done so the Allies would probably taken advantage of the lack of resistance sooner.

Fair points all, but you don't need to kill the tanks to stop a tank formation. They are so vulnerable without the soft support that they verge on useless. "soft support" isn't just spare parts and supply units, it is fuel, supporting infantry and artillery, ammunition. All things a tank force in combat consumes in large quantities and without which renders them ineffective. In fact the vulnerability of the soft targets have a great deal to do with the piecemeal nature of the German response.

Yes I agree but if those forces had already been close as Rommel wished the supplies would have been up with them close.

Imagine a scenario where Rommel got his way and had more divisions close and they acted swiftly on the day arriving in greater numbers during the morning or midday when infantry was the only thing really ashore in any depth (and then only 2-3 miles) - I don't think much heavy equipment would have got off the beach until perhaps naval fire had dealt sufficient attrition and if they Germans could bring up fresh artillery (and use the stuff they had once the paras had been snuffed out) to shell the beaches (and ships) in that time it would have been a disaster . The allies nearly abandoned Omaha due to getting stuck - I think they would have had to pull back and come back another day somewhere else - once they had re-planned the whole thing of course

Yes I agree but if those forces had already been close as Rommel wished the supplies would have been up with them close.

Imagine a scenario where Rommel got his way and had more divisions close and they acted swiftly on the day arriving in greater numbers during the morning or midday when infantry was the only thing really ashore in any depth (and then only 2-3 miles) - I don't think much heavy equipment would have got off the beach until perhaps naval fire had dealt sufficient attrition and if they Germans could bring up fresh artillery (and use the stuff they had once the paras had been snuffed out) to shell the beaches (and ships) in that time it would have been a disaster . The allies nearly abandoned Omaha due to getting stuck - I think they would have had to pull back and come back another day somewhere else - once they had re-planned the whole thing of course

Every choice has a downside and we don't see most when we look back with our 20/20 hindsight. The Germans could not have Panzer divisions closer to the one possible beachhead without having them farther from another. And even those closer to Caen would be too far from Omaha to have made any difference (by mid-day the battle of Omaha was decided even if not over). Besides, they would have to travel not just 10s of extra miles but across the axis of 2-3 beachheads, and through the Bocage, to do it.

Had they engaged sooner the invasion would still have worked. Casualties on the allied side would have been greater but so would have those on the German side. Except this time it would have been casualties of front line Panzer divisions that would later be used effectively in defense rather than 2nd and 3rd rate infantry divisions.

Much of the allied plan revolved around blocking those Panzer divisions. It was why the 21st Panzer division fared so poorly.

German guns were just not going to be a counter to the naval ships. The allies had cruisers and battleships, ships designed to resist hits by 8, 10, 12" guns, and there were a LOT of them. 7 battleships (12-16" guns), 5 heavy cruisers and 17 light cruisers plus hundreds of destroyers.

Every choice has a downside and we don't see most when we look back with our 20/20 hindsight. The Germans could not have Panzer divisions closer to the one possible beachhead without having them farther from another. And even those closer to Caen would be too far from Omaha to have made any difference (by mid-day the battle of Omaha was decided even if not over). Besides, they would have to travel not just 10s of extra miles but across the axis of 2-3 beachheads, and through the Bocage, to do it.

Had they engaged sooner the invasion would still have worked. Casualties on the allied side would have been greater but so would have those on the German side. Except this time it would have been casualties of front line Panzer divisions that would later be used effectively in defense rather than 2nd and 3rd rate infantry divisions.

Much of the allied plan revolved around blocking those Panzer divisions. It was why the 21st Panzer division fared so poorly.

German guns were just not going to be a counter to the naval ships. The allies had cruisers and battleships, ships designed to resist hits by 8, 10, 12" guns, and there were a LOT of them. 7 battleships (12-16" guns), 5 heavy cruisers and 17 light cruisers plus hundreds of destroyers.

I should add that reach the beach between beaches on the first day is not the same as reaching the beaches where the landings take place.

using the same 20/20 hindsight the ultimate success of Overlord was never at risk.