Posted on 06/11/2007 12:17:14 AM PDT by LibWhacker
I’m speechless.
Why was there no heavy armor landed on the beaches?
Soldiers salute.
You sir, did your soldier’s job. Our boys did theirs. The battle cost both sides and the casualties were the best and the bravest. I carry no ill will towards you and I respect the fact that you stood your post in time off war when lesser men would have run.
Let go of your demons sir, they are but phantom’s of the past.
The US didn’t HAVE any heavy armor. The M26 Pershing tank didn’t make it to the battlefield until February of 1945. The most advanced weapon available was the M4 Sherman. A number of them were converted for amphibious operations, but none survived the swim to the beach.
US tanks couldn’t land because of the MILLIONS of tank traps the Germans had set up on the beaches. Armor couldn’t land until the infantry blew up or removed the antitank barriers.
Here's a pic of the antitank barriers. Rows of these extended out into the water, making it nigh-impossible to drop vehicles in the surf.
12,000 rounds / 3,000 kills = 4 rounds per kill.
4 rounds per kill from a mg? Seems wrong.
Hear, hear! He merely did a soldier’s job. We would congratulate one of ours that killed 3000, how is he different? Just because Adolph Hitler was the Chancellor of Germany changes nothing. Herr Severloh took an oath to do his duty and obey lawful orders, and he did so.
I know you all don’t get to spend as much time here as you used to, but I thougth this might interest you all.
Well, he’s only claiming 2000 or so, and perhaps 400 of those were rifle kills.
12,000 rounds/ 1600 kills = 7.5 rounds per kill.
Don’t forget that these were either files or waves of men charging the guns, and that the men still in the boats were essentially in death traps where *any* round entering the front meant an injury or death.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Different war, but seems appropiate here.
Because the American generals blew off General Montgomery’s advice to use armor in assaulting the beach - Montgomery had the British Army develop specialized assault vehicles for D-Day and offered some to the American Army - they refused. For more details on this American fiasco, read the “Blitzkrieg Myth” by John Mosier.
And the good Lt. Col. may not have studied the British organized fiasco at Dieppe, where most of the tanks were never able to advance off the beach, and those few that did were fairly quickly abandoned.
OK, here’s your bonus for the night - a thread about British amphibian tanks at Normandy:
The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Hobart’s Funnies - January 9th, 2004 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1054522/posts
Here’s a general Omaha Beach thread:
The FReeper Foxhole Remembers D-Day On Omaha Beach (6/6/1944) - June 6th, 2003 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/924248/posts
It wouldn’t have necessarily helped. We didn’t take out the German shore guns, we didn’t have anything that could bull through the tank traps.
Let’s also not forget that Monty was a complete ass and without massive American support wouldn’t have won his Africa campaign.
The Americans deployed 64 amphibian Shermans at Omaha beach. The British deployed 40 Churchills. Now, what was that advice again?
The British tanks were much more successful in reaching the beach, but one factor may have been that the Shermans were launched from too far out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.