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Alternative Approach to the Invasion

Discussion in 'World War 2' started by Roel, Sep 9, 2004.

  1. Roel

    Roel New Member

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    The recently published book "Fighting the Invasion, the German army at D-Day" is a collection of works from German officers, written after the war on orders of the American war department. One of those documents is from General der Infanterie Blumentritt, who was chief of staff to OB West (von Rundstedt) at the time. He writes how Von Rundstedt would have tried to fight the D-Day invasion with the weapons he had available, had he been given a free hand by OKW and Hitler. This is very interesting; I would like to know whether you think this plan would have been more succesful, or even entirely succesful, against the Allied invasion.

    The plan was to simply give up Southern France, and pull the troops there (1st and 19th Army) north towards Paris. The divisions holding the coast around the Channel area would stay in place, but contrary to the historical situation OB West would now have four armoured and six infantry divisions in reserve around Paris. Not trusting for one second that the Atlantikwall would stop the Allied landings, Von Rundstedt planned to let the Allies storm east and the smash into their flanks to the north or south, whichever applied, as the Allied thrust passed Paris.

    In any case the plan would have provided OB West with a reasonably mobile and substantial reserve to be deployed wherever they would want it to be. This is better than the real situation on June 6th 1944. It's really a much more worrying perspective.
     
  2. Mutant Poodle

    Mutant Poodle New Member

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    It would have changed things considerably! However any armour reaching the coast to attempt pushing the Allies back into the sea would have been eliminated by the enormous fire power of the Allied fleets.
    It would have definitely extended the durtation the Normandy front could resist; remember though that Germany could not match the Allies in the replacement of men and equipment. I use Caen the Anvil of Victory as my reference.
    Definitely an interesting topic for the post war map of Europe. I wonder how different the war on the Eastern front could have changed if Hitler had let his generals retire to more defensible positions and actually possess a continuous, intact front?

    The battle for Normandy I think would have extended the battle by 6 - 12 months until material and casualty attrition obliged the Germans to retire from the Normandy coast.
     
  3. Greg Pitts

    Greg Pitts New Member

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    I disagree.

    Germany was incabale of fighting a mobile war at this stage of the game as the Allies had complete control of the air.

    :smok:
     
  4. canambridge

    canambridge Member

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    Do you read it as this being a pre-invasion move or as as a reaction to the invasion?
     
  5. Roel

    Roel New Member

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    Pulling the south armies back as a pre-invasion move, so that OB West would have a central reserve. Any moves made with this reserve would be reaction to the invasion.

    Mutant Poodle, you are right about the ships' artillery seriously damaging anything near the coast, as the German officers all admit. But I don't think von Rundstedt would have sent his only reserves to the coast if he didn't trust the Atlantikwall in the first place. He would have pulled back and moved to more tenable positions, provoking mobile and changing warfare as he was taught. Continuous withdrawals and attacks into the enemy flanks would be the result, instead of holding on to the coastal region which was deemed madness by German officers. There they were under fire from the naval guns, and therefore could not move a muscle. Further inland they 'only' had the enemy air force to worry about.

    Greg, you're right about the air superiority of the Allies. Still, they wouldn't have known of the reserve if it was carried out properly. If the German attack was carried out with stealth it could have enough surprise impact to throw the Allied attack into chaos. In any case the German command in france had much more experience with mobile warfare than the Allied commanders, and therefore would have nother advantage in the nice tank country of northern France.
     
  6. Gatsby phpbb3

    Gatsby phpbb3 New Member

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    But how long can you sustain an assault when your enemy has both air superiority and the numerical advantage? It may have helped stall for time but would it actually have been capable of sending the allies packing?
     
  7. Mutant Poodle

    Mutant Poodle New Member

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    According to the German officers that fought at Caen there was a hardened realization, at week six of the battle, that the Germans could not win the battle for Normandy or even France. In their words Germany had been bled dry of its elite forces, its ability to produce capable fighting men had absolutely no hope of maintaining resistence.
    What this sums up is that any invasion must have a continuous, uninterrupted supply of equipment and capable replacement soldiers at a higher rate than the enemy.
     
  8. Roel

    Roel New Member

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    Remember that it took the Allies a lot of time to gain numerical superiority over the German forces in France as a whole. The fact that they weren't freely deployed against the bridgehead more or less saved the Allied effort, because there were sixty German divisions under OB West on June 6th against just 9 Allied divisions on the beaches.

    Now of course these couldn't all have been drawn into one spot just like that, but imagine a further ten or so being there at the moment of necessity, to reinforce the five (Was it 5? 352, 91, 709, 21st Pz; it was 4) already in the area.
     
  9. corpcasselbury

    corpcasselbury New Member

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    One thing being overlooked is the fact that the invasion of Southern France, now being totally unopposed, would place large Allied forces on the southern flank of the German forces in France. This would seem to me to make the German position in France completely untenable.
     

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