Hedgerow suprise

Many books and stories covering the fighting in Normandy express how unprepared the Allies were for fighting in the hedgerows. Seems the troops were never trained for this kind of fighting especially the armored forces. These enclosures have been in Normandy for hundreds of years, they were so visable to anyone who had ever visited the place--why were they such a suprise when we invaded?

 

Everyone knew that they were there, you could say, but nobody was fully prepared to realize how potentially effective they were as defendable positions; the Germans made good work of these short term barriers and even with intel, many of the troops from what I have read assumed they were simply "thick bushes" of sorts that would be easy to pass through. Opposite assumptions to reality of course, but human considering the troops had not encountered them firsthand.

 

I'm not too versed on WWI, but didn't the Allies fight in Normandy then?

 

No they didn't. Normandy was way behind the front.

Kind regards,

Jos

 

They were so thick they stopped tanks in their tracks! (We grow bamboo here to help stop cyclonic winds)...Few realised that the hedgerows were/are hundreds of years old...trimmed, but thickened over the many years, those buggers were going nowhere...bangalors and flame throwers might assist...

 

I did read that the Allied command believed that once the foothold on continent was stable, the Germans would retreat to better defensive positions, perhaps even behind the Seine. I recall von Rundstedt talking about the Seine positions next. Hitler did not buy that surprise surprise.

 

It's a point which has interested me, having visited the area many times. It was certainly an oversight in the planning and one of the causes was that people were not so well-travelled then as they are today ( for instance, Hitler had never been anywhere ). Also, aerial reconnaissance simply revealed hedges, but not the great depth of the ancient trackways which those hedges concealed.

At the end of the day, it's proff again that no plan can foresee absolutely everything......even if in retrospect, it seems obvious.

And Kai is quite correct - one look at the map will reveal the high ground at Mortain and also behind Falaise as near-perfect defensive positions. The logical thing to do for the Germans once the Allies were ashore would be to fall back and defend. But....not one step back, etc...

 

Some thoughts...

Attached excerpt from US V Corps orders for NEPTUNE. Of course NEPTUNE was the assault phase of OVERLORD so the emphasis was on the beaches.

The description and assessment seem accurate but, still, I detect a bit of understatement...."banks are fairly old and probably sufficiently resistant to" (italics added)

The people that needed to know the most were the battalion commanders and below. They were not briefed on the operation until they were locked down in the staging camps.


Personally I feel high level commanders in WWII were a bit vague on how infantry combat was done at the company level. They may have imagined WWI style charges but without the trenches and shell torn ground.

Even if high level officers correctly assessed the difficulties (and reached a broad consensus), could they prepare the troops without giving away the target area? Are there similar hedgerows in England that could be used as a training ground. If not, then artificially constructing them or providing a through brief on their nature could give away the target area. Among the thousands of men and junior officers there were probably a few, especially among the British, that would have recognized the hedgerow terrain feature.

 

Thank you all--many good points to consider. Earthican's point is well taken--how would you replicate a bunch of hedgerows for training without giving an indication where you were planning to invade.

 

One hedge is easy to cross, two are ok, three are getting harder and when you have dozen an hour with hidden Germans shooting at, you it's hell. One man can stop a tank with a Panzerfaust or some explosives , others can shoot you from the side, from below , from a place you do not even supsect. You get stuck in the mud, you struggle , the man in front of you slaps a branch in your face , you hear a noise an almost shoot a friend... a very stressful experience.

 

a few surprises behind the hedgerows

 

It seems to me that the StG 44 would have been the ideal weapon in that environment. However, I don't think any were present at Normandy. As far as planning goes, it seems to me that the Overlord planners set their goal as getting the troops onto the beaches in reasonably good order. After that the local commanders would have to figure out the tactics to deal with the local situation.

 

Thanks for the pictures Skipper. They do look pretty benigne from the air, but up close, the second set of pictures shows it's a whole different story.
Gotta put "see Nornandy" on my bucket list.

 

This picture is not taken in Normandy. If I'm not mistaken (I am about 6000km separated from my books ) it's a picture taken during trials of the MP43. I'll check when I'm back home, later this week.

Kind regards,

Jos

Edited to add: does anybody own this book:



I'm pretty sure that the pic is in there, with the location mentioned in the caption!

 

Speaking of Normandy, anyone ever had Calvados?

 

sorry about the 1943 picture, it showed up in the Normandy data bank, hence the mistake.

Here's another one to catch up, this one I'm sur eis 1944 Normandy.