June 6 D. day

[whitehall]

The last thing a military force should do is launch an attack on an impregnable fortress but that's what happened on D. Day. Ike had about a million conscripted American Soldiers and if that's what it took he was determined to claim a beachhead in France. Much is said about the secrecy of the invasion but it didn't take long for the Germans to shift their defensive positions. The media writes the history books and the media was part of the FDR administration so Americans would only be treated to heroic stories and the bad news of the six month long breakout would take a back burner.

 

[Rambunctious]

I think they thought no one could survive the barrage we laid down with our Navy and Army air force... some areas we thought would have strong defenses were empty of enemy soldiers and other areas we though there was no way anybody survived were the strongest resistance...

 

[Dekster]

The last thing a military force should do is launch an attack on an impregnable fortress but that's what happened on D. Day. Ike had about a million conscripted American Soldiers and if that's what it took he was determined to claim a beachhead in France. Much is said about the secrecy of the invasion but it didn't take long for the Germans to shift their defensive positions. The media writes the history books and the media was part of the FDR administration so Americans would only be treated to heroic stories and the bad news of the six month long breakout would take a back burner.

The German shift, however, left their strongholds in Belarus vulnerable. Russia was finally able to break through and start their swing into central Europe with failing German resistance from the divided Axis forces. I don't think the plan was ever to drive straight through. It was for the Allies to get a foothold and create a western front while Russia just beat the stuffings out of them on the eastern front while the resistance inside the German borders like in Poland, busied the Germans further.

 

[Deadstick]

I think they thought no one could survive the barrage we laid down with our Navy and Army air force... some areas we thought would have strong defenses were empty of enemy soldiers and other areas we though there was no way anybody survived were the strongest resistance...

On my visits to France and Netherlands i have been inside some of those German defence bunkers on the Atlantic wall that are preserved as museums and i understand why many survived intense shelling by the allies they were so well built, one i visited in the Normandy a few times is the Merville battery who had their big guns targeting the Normandy landing beaches so British airborne forces had to neutralize the complex early on D-Day, i was privileged to meet one veteran who took part in 2017 Fred Glover who has now passed away, his story would have made a good movie.

WWII Hero Fred Glover Dies Aged 94 - Cobseo

Fred Glover was called up during WWII and after his training volunteered for the Parachute Regiment and was posted to 9 Battalion.

www.cobseo.org.uk