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Ensuring Victory At
Normandy
by Wesley May
HISTORY
Since the days of Frederick the Great,
Germany was convinced she could not win a
drawn–out war of attrition!
BLITZKRIEG
In the opening ground phase of World War
II in Western Europe, Germany purposely
avoided the protracted, static trench warfare of
the Western Front in World War I. It effectively
adopted Frederick the Great’s conviction that
Germany could not prevail in a long war of
attrition. So their preference was for focused
combat conducted against a narrow front in the
opposing enemy’s line of defense. Their superior
armored units would break swiftly through that
defensive line (supported by infantry). This
armored force could
then roam freely
behind enemy lines
spreading the attack
to left and right,
and creating shock
and disorganization
within the enemy’s
defenses and
overwhelming them!
The German Air
Force (LUFTWAFFE)
p r e v e n t e d
redeploying or
resupplying the
o v e r w h e l m e d
enemy, i.e., no
opportunity for
rescue. The German
force could then
encircle opposing
troops and force surrender. This is BLITZKRIEG
in a nutshell!
Germany did not assign that name to this
offensive deployment. It was the Allies who
dubbed it with the German word Blitzkrieg
(Lightning War). The concept is to combine
the military potential of internal-combustion
engines for rapid movement with sophisticated
communications technology so that large
military formations moving on tracks and
wheels, and directed by radios, could rupture an
enemy’s forward echelon and so disorganize its
rear that countermeasures would be paralyzed.
It was effectively employed when Germany
attacked Poland on 1 September 1939. That
successful attack was followed by victories in six
more countries in April and May 1940: Denmark,
Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg
and France. Great Britain was protected from a
Blitzkrieg ground attack by the English Channel
and the Royal Navy. However, Blitzkrieg was also
used by German commander Erwin Rommel
during the North African campaign of World War
II and adopted by U.S. General George Patton
for his army’s European operations.
At this point, German offensive power
was without question the dominant power in
Western Europe. But, as the war wore on, could
those dominant Blitzkrieg tactics continue to
be as successful after Germany expanded the
war by invading the Soviet Union in June 1941.
The initial impact of Blitzkrieg was awesome in
driving Russian forces back more than 600 miles
to the gates of Moscow and inflicting terrible
losses. But an unresolved issue was what would
be the effect if the Allies could in some way shift
away from the Blitzkrieg-induced retreat by
seizing an aggressive offensive posture.
HITLER’S STRATEGIC ERROR
Gratuitously, Hitler made a grave strategic
error by unilaterally declaring war on the United
States on December 11, 1941. Within hours both
the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
voted unanimously for Declaration of War on
Germany. However, at that time, Germany
continued to be unable to defeat Great Britain
and the Russian campaign was encountering
increasing difficulties. So Hitler’s promise to
defeat Russia before winter was not fulfilled.
Even worse, in strategic terms, the United States
could now directly enter the European war in
support of the United Kingdom and Allies while
simultaneously combating the Japanese Pacific
threat.
By rushing into conflict with the U.S., Hitler
increased the risk of losing the Russian war of
extermination on the eastern front by the early
commitment of Germany to fight the U.S. instead
of taking the option of putting off that conflict
with the U.S. for as long as possible! A strategic
error of biting off more than he could chew,
since forcing America to concentrate on the war
in the Pacific against Japan would have made
it much more difficult for America to become
involved in the European war. Consequently
the Allied defense against the German offense
inherited a powerful force multiplier to defeat
the Blitzkrieg!
So that strategic error would enhance
America’s broad economic and military support
for the European War, by seriously shifting the
balance of combat power away from Hitler …
i.e., the Battle Environment that had nurtured
BLITZKRIEG was slowly starting to disappear!
DIMINISHING LUFTWAFFE’S SUPREMACY
The Luftwaffe mission was to insulate
the combat zone by denying the enemy any
opportunity to attempt to redeploy or resupply
its units being attacked. In the early stages of
the air battle, the opposing mission initially
assigned to the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) 8th
Air Force, was to “escort,” with P-47 Thunderbolt
fighters, B-17 Heavy Bombers enroute to bomb
strategic German targets. But when the B-17s
had to fly further into Germany to hit their
targets, the fighters did not have adequate
combat range to maintain escort mission all the
way to the target. So the “escort” fighters had to
leave the bombers and return to base while the
bombers continued to the target. After refueling
and rearming, the P-47 escorts rejoined the
formation at the designated Rendezvous point
to escort the bombers home. This necessary
operational evolution gave the Luftwaffe an
inopportune opportunity to attack the nowunescorted
bombers.
Although the B-17E’s had 13 0.50 inch (12.7
mm) M2 Browning machine guns in 9 separate
positions, this defensive armament was no
match for the Luftwaffe’s’ firepower in an aircombat
situation … the ”Flying Fortress” was a
capable bomber, but wasn’t a real “Fortress” that
could defend itself! Doubt began to creep into
military and political cost/benefit assessments
created by this mode of air war, (i.e., benefits
generated by combat effort didn’t match the
high cost in terms of B-17’s shot down.) But in
Jan 1944, the advanced P-51 Mustang arrived
on scene which promptly tripled our kill-rate
against Luftwaffe fighters, while also extending
fighter’s range to cover the B-17’s entire mission,
which settled that issue!
On Feb 24,1944, BIG WEEK Rostock
commenced 6 days of back-to-back strikes.
Lt. Gen Jimmy Doolittle (of “30 Seconds Over
Tokyo” fame) had taken command of 8th Air
Force and redirected the fighters’ mission from
escorting bombers to using bombers as bait to
lure Luftwaffe fighters to attack the bombers
and then destroying the German fighters with
his superior P-51 fighter airpower. Doolittle’s
combat philosophy was that fighters were
for the offensive task to engage and kill the
enemy and not a more passive defensive task.
So the P-51 mission was no longer to protect
B-17’s but to destroy German fighters. Actually
this is essentially a Blitzkrieg-oriented tactic
which generated fantastic combat results! The
real message was: fighters are our agents for
attack… a task that may not be diverted to any
subordinate mission. It was a strategy to pay
any price required to deliver the results that we
MUST ACHIEVE! D-day is just over 3 months
away!
The IMMEDIATE consequence of this
TACTICAL CHANGE was that by the end of March
1944 (the next month), P-51’s under Doolittle’s
command had destroyed more German fighters
than had been destroyed in the past TWO YEARS
COMBINED! BY ANY DEFINITION THIS WAS A
DECISIVE VICTORY!
OPERATION BODYGUARD
In summer 1943, Normandy was selected for
the cross-Channel amphibious invasion. The
shortest route via Pas de Calais was rejected
because it was too heavily defended.
The Allies developed a series of elaborate
deceptions in its disinformation campaign,
codenamed “Operation Bodyguard,” to protect
details of the upcoming invasion to liberate
Europe from the Nazi domination. BODYGUARD
was designed to conceal tactical, schedule
and geographic details of planned operations
and to induce the Germans to commit faulty
strategic and tactical actions thereby enhancing
effectiveness of Allied operational plans.
The deception web indicated that attack
could come from any location on the Atlantic
Wall (the 1,500 mile coastal defense barrier
constructed from the Arctic Circle down to
Spain’s northern border). Examples include:
+ Fortitude North, a misinformation
campaign using fake radio traffic to convince
the Germans of an attack on Norway.
+ Fortitude South, a larger scale deception
involving the creation of an ENTIRELY
FICTITIOUS First U.S. Army Group (FUSAG) led
by General Patton, to deceive the Germans that
the main attack would take place at Calais.
+ Another major deception: the FICTITIOUS
British Fourth Army was reported in Scotland
with plans to join with the Soviet Union in
an invasion of Norway + radio transmissions
concerning ski bindings and operating armored
vehicles in subzero temperatures…Successful
Effect: Hitler sent division to Scandinavia just
The German
force could
then encircle
opposing
troops
and force
surrender.
This is
BLITZKRIEG
in a nutshell!
Collins Foundation B-17.
No. 136 The Pinehurst Gazette, Inc. p.27
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