bump for later reading
In general the bombardment orders were inadequate to the conditions on the ground. At least one destroyer exceeded its orders by closing with the shore batteries and dueling with them with its 5-inch guns. But the heavier bombardment units, battleships and bombers - were not committed nearly as fully as the desperate infantry on the beach.
But of course it is second-guessing to say so, in that those elements were at pains to avoid friendly fire. I think the lesson of that is to realize that targeting accuracy and communications are the critical elements needed in addition to pure firepower. And that, as the first Gulf War illustrates,
But then, you don't necessarily have a good way of selecting that optimum point, unless your communications are good and you know how badly you are taking casualties and can promptly adjust the aggressivness of your bombardment.
No Arty- No Air- No Armor- and they went ahead anyway...it was too late to backout and try for another better day...They went ahead...attacked and overcame the Germans....
Unbeliveable losses....Kids....
World War II Vets of D Day are America's Greatest Generation are as those of the War in the Pacific
I was in awe of them when I was a kid....even more so today....
They are...who we want our sons to be like....with "True Grit"
116th Infantry Regiment bump.
I wish I was back home in the 116th's home of Virginia this weekend to see what (if anything) they are doing at the D-Day Memorial in Bedford.
And the next time somebody slams the National Guard, just remember how many of the bravest men in WWII served in Guard units. The 116th, part of the 29th Infantry Division "Blue and Gray", heroes of Omaha Beach, was and still is part of the Virginia National Guard.
}:-)4
D-DAY LANDING (6 JUNE 1944)
1st Section, Co E, 16th Inf, 1st Division.
Interview with: Lt. John Spaulding, [misspelling of Spalding] Leader 1st Section.
Overlay: Sketch map on 1:7920 map, Omaha Beach, East; Navy Map to be found in Navy Neptune Monograph. From information given by Lt. Spaulding. Drawn by S/Sgt Topete.
Herve, Belgium, 1st Div Rear CP, 9 Feb 1945.
Interviewers: M/Sgt F.C. Pogue and S/Sgt J.M.Topete (V Corps)
We loaded into LCVP’s from larger ships at 0300. The companies were divided into sections and each LCVP had 32 men, including a medic, plus two navy men. I was leader of the first section of Company E and we were scheduled to go in on the first wave. My assistant section leader was T/Sgt Phillip Streczyk. The sergeant, who was wounded in the Hurtgen forest action, was the best soldier I have ever seen. He came into the army as a selectee and worked his way up to platoon sergeant. He was in on landings at Oran and in Sicily. If we had more men like him the war would soon be over. *1*
We unloaded into LCVP’s in a very rough sea. It took us much longer to load than it had during the practice landings because of the rough water. After entering the LCVP’s we went an undetermined distance to a rendezvous point. Here the Navy crew took us around and around, getting us soaked to the skin. Many of the men got sick immediately and others got sick as we went in towards shore.
About 0400 our boats lined up in a V formation and headed towards shore. As we went towards shore we could see the outlines of other boats around us and overhead we could hear a few planes. Between 0545-0600 we saw the first flashes from the shore. We didn’t know whether they were our planes bombing, as we had been told to expect, or whether the flashes were from German artillery. We caught sight of the shore about 0615. We also saw a few of our fighter planes. About 0630 the rocket ships began to fire, but most of their rockets hit in the water.
http://www.warchronicle.com/16th_infantry/historiantales_wwii/spalding.htm#missed.