Normandy '44 (1 Viewer)

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syscom3

Pacific Historian
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Jun 4, 2005
Orange County, CA
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!!!
 
Did this author write a book about the Battle of Britain? I read it soon after joining the Forum as homework. I remember the name Holland. It was very well written. It was so well written that I had to skip the first few chapters on the Battle of France. The writing of how bad French leadership was left me wanting to scream at the pages much the same as an audience would yell "don't go in the basement" at a bad movie.
 
I have been on the beaches the bunkers the roads all around Caen took route du Patton.. and have been walking through the bocage and fields. The bocage, must have been frightening beyond. Cant see next corner and is very dense. Best AT ground i can imagine.
 
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i have just finished this by the same author.

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great read and a decent insight into tank warfare in Europe in 1944/45

will look at the Normandy book
 
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.



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..
I have seen this point made before, not only by historians but by one of the actual gunners who was there. Surely it is for the people in charge to make sure there was enough ammunition and replacement guns or barrels? Getting spent cartridges out was also an issue, the gunner said they were wading knee deep in them.
 
I have seen this point made before, not only by historians but by one of the actual gunners who was there. Surely it is for the people in charge to make sure there was enough ammunition and replacement guns or barrels? Getting spent cartridges out was also an issue, the gunner said they were wading knee deep in them.
There was only so much ammo to give out. As well as replacement barrels. The book also mentioned that wooden bullets were given to some of the troops.
 
There was only so much ammo to give out. As well as replacement barrels. The book also mentioned that wooden bullets were given to some of the troops.
The Germans still had ammunition in 1945 Berlin. If you want to stop a landing the people there have to have the stuff to do it, otherwise why build the whole Atlantic wall defence. I suppose it all boils down to the situation being hopeless virtually from the start.
 
James Holland is a fantastic historian I have watched a few presentations he made on WW2TV (YouTube Channel) Woody's channel has a lot of great historians that cover WW II Air Sea and Land as well as Geopolitics, Logistics, economics. Just got to YouTube and search WW2TV There some great stuff on BoB, DAF, and US Airpower. Woody wrote a book about two 101st AB Medics at Angoville-au-Plain on D-Day and its an exceptional book, he also did a presentation on his channel. IF you have done the tours there He is one of the tour guides along with his partner (wife or GF? not sure, never asked) Magala. If you haven't seen his channel I recommend it. And Shattered Sword is a great book by Parshall and Tully on Midway especially from the Japanese perspective
 

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