D DAY

[vinnye]

There were some ships that were designed for bombardment of shore facilities - monitors eg Roberts Class with 15 inch guns.
They were designed with a broad beam and shallow draught for operating close to shore and stability.
As previously posted - the fire support is only as good as the spotting that directs it.

 

[raumatibeach]

HMS Belfast was a 6 inch cruiser that did her share of fire support missions. I have heard that she put a shell through the fire slit of one gun emplacement - luck or accuracy ? Who cares it did the job!

I read somewhere that was HMS Achilles, when the shell landed the breech on the gun was open as was the magazine door and the subsequent explosion tore the roof off the bunker. I wish I could remember the book, it was an entertaining read.

 

[stug3]

Canadian Churchill tanks during Exercise 'Spartan', March 1943.

Covenanter tanks harboured by the side of a road during Exercise 'Spartan'

Churchill IV

Valentine Bridgelayer

A Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun uses a hayrick for camouflage.

6-pdr anti-tank gun

 

[stug3]

In the early stages of the building of the Atlantic Wall the Germans favoured building on a grand scale.

 

[vinnye]

Just looked back at some earlier photos and saw the Covenanter - I first thought it was a Crusader.
Wasn't the Covenanter so unreliable it was only used for training and inside the UK?

 

[Freebird]

was there anyway that the d day landings would not have been successful for the allies? i do not think so.... any scenarios where germany could have won the d day battle?

Sure, if the Allies had followed Stimson's Marshall's idea to land in France in 1942...

 

[stug3]

Just looked back at some earlier photos and saw the Covenanter - I first thought it was a Crusader.
Wasn't the Covenanter so unreliable it was only used for training and inside the UK?

I dont know too much about the Covenanter, I just assumed it was a variant of the Crusader.


Major-General B. G. Horrocks, then GOC of 9th Armoured Division, in his Covenanter command tank during Exercise 'Limpet' in the Thetford-Bury St Edmunds area, 18 July 1942.

 

[vinnye]

From Wiki ;
The Tank, Cruiser, Mk V, Covenanter (A13 Mk III) was a British Cruiser tank of the Second World War. It was named for the Covenanters, a Scottish religious faction in the British Isles at the time of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The Covenanter was the first cruiser tank design to be given a name.

Designed by London, Midland and Scottish Railway as a better armoured replacement for the Cruiser Mark IV, it was ordered into production in 1939 before pilot models were built. Problems with the design only became apparent after production was under way.

Although it equipped British armoured divisions in the home defence and training roles, poor engine cooling made it unfit for use overseas in hot climates and it never saw combat. In 1943 it was declared obsolete after more than 1,700 had been built.