syscom3
Pacific Historian
Normandy '1944
James Holland
2019
Not just another book about the Invasion of Normandy. But a great book to give a different look on this event.
So what did I take from this?
Navel bombardment, naval support. I cannot emphasize this. As long as the allies had multitudes of readily called upon batteries of gunfire support, they never had to worry about Nazi attacks on the beach heads. Once the allies were ashore. The armies were assured of massive artillery support. The Nazi's could never defeat the allies once ashore and had defensive positions.
Fighter bomber support!! Fighter bomber support!! Fighter bomber support!!
Fighter bomber support!! Fighter bomber support!!
Ok, we all know how effective air support was. But to understand just how effective it was, you have to understand the cumulative erosion of the Nazi combat power was . They were unable to amplify the qualitative firepower of what they had. It was frittered away in a war of attrition that they, the Nazi's could not win.
The Nazi MG32. A superb machine gun. But with a flaw. It fired at so high a rate of fire, it began to be a liability. Example. At Omaha beach, the MG emplacements ran out of ammo and replacement barrels and one by one, began to fail and cease to be a weapons strong point..
This book also had something no other book had. A minute by minute account of the invasion. I noticed that at Omaha Beach, the most highly contested of the five beaches; the Nazi strong points were being systematically reduced one by one as the morning progressed. When each strong point was reduced, others were going to fail. Eventually the whole Nazi line failed. And the invasion was a success.
Antitank warfare in the bocage. The allied antitank guns were just as effective as their Nazi counterparts. In the close in battles, it didnt amount to anything when a small caliber AT gun hit a superior Nazi tank point blank. It was going to penetrate. We can spend decades talking about which gun was the best. But in the Bocage, the point blank ranges meant that allied weapons that were "sort of OK" when ambushing the superior Nazi tanks, did succeed.
All in all, this was a great book to read!!!
James Holland
2019
Not just another book about the Invasion of Normandy. But a great book to give a different look on this event.
So what did I take from this?
Navel bombardment, naval support. I cannot emphasize this. As long as the allies had multitudes of readily called upon batteries of gunfire support, they never had to worry about Nazi attacks on the beach heads. Once the allies were ashore. The armies were assured of massive artillery support. The Nazi's could never defeat the allies once ashore and had defensive positions.
Fighter bomber support!! Fighter bomber support!! Fighter bomber support!!
Fighter bomber support!! Fighter bomber support!!
Ok, we all know how effective air support was. But to understand just how effective it was, you have to understand the cumulative erosion of the Nazi combat power was . They were unable to amplify the qualitative firepower of what they had. It was frittered away in a war of attrition that they, the Nazi's could not win.
The Nazi MG32. A superb machine gun. But with a flaw. It fired at so high a rate of fire, it began to be a liability. Example. At Omaha beach, the MG emplacements ran out of ammo and replacement barrels and one by one, began to fail and cease to be a weapons strong point..
This book also had something no other book had. A minute by minute account of the invasion. I noticed that at Omaha Beach, the most highly contested of the five beaches; the Nazi strong points were being systematically reduced one by one as the morning progressed. When each strong point was reduced, others were going to fail. Eventually the whole Nazi line failed. And the invasion was a success.
Antitank warfare in the bocage. The allied antitank guns were just as effective as their Nazi counterparts. In the close in battles, it didnt amount to anything when a small caliber AT gun hit a superior Nazi tank point blank. It was going to penetrate. We can spend decades talking about which gun was the best. But in the Bocage, the point blank ranges meant that allied weapons that were "sort of OK" when ambushing the superior Nazi tanks, did succeed.
All in all, this was a great book to read!!!
