Posted on 06/03/2004 10:01:29 AM PDT by johnqueuepublic
Tragic French Offensive Stalled On Beaches
By William A. Mayer, Editor & Publisher - PipeLineNews.org
Normandy, France - PipeLineNews - June 6, 1944 - Pandemonium, shock and sheer terror predominate today’s events in Europe.
In an as yet unfolding apparent fiasco, Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight David Eisenhower’s troops got a rude awakening this morning at Omaha Beach here in Normandy.
Due to insufficient planning and lack of a workable entrance strategy, soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry as well as Army Rangers are now bogged down and sustaining heavy casualties inflicted on them by dug-in insurgent positions located 170 feet above on cliffs overlooking the beaches; beaches which resemble blood soaked killing fields at the time of this mid-morning filing.
Bodies, parts of bodies and blood are the order of the day here, the screams of the dying and the stillness of the dead mingle in testament to this terrible event.
Morale can only be described as extremely poor - in some companies all the officers have been either killed or incapacitated, leaving only poorly trained privates to fend for themselves.
Things appear to be going so poorly that Lt. General Omar Bradley has been rumored to be considering breaking off the attack entirely. As we go to press embattled U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s spokesman has not made himself available for comment at all, fueling fires that something has gone disastrously awry.
The government at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is in a distinct lock-down mode and the Vice President’s location is presently and officially undisclosed.
Whether the second in command should have gone into hiding during such a crisis will have to be answered at some future time, but many agree it does not send a good signal.
Miles behind the beaches and adding to the chaos, U.S. Naval gunships have inflicted many friendly fire casualties, as huge high explosive projectiles rain death and destruction on unsuspecting Allied positions. The lack of training of Naval gunners has been called into question numerous times before and today’s demonstration seems to underlie those concerns.
At Utah Beach the situation is also grim, elements of the 82nd and 101st Airborne seemed to be in disarray as they missed their primary drop zones behind the area believed to comprise the militant’s front lines. Errant paratroopers have been hung up in trees, breaking arms and legs, rendering themselves easy targets for those defending this territory.
On the beach front itself the landing area was missed, catapulting US forces nearly 2,000 yards South of the intended coordinates, thus placing them that much farther away from the German insurgents and unable to direct covering fire or materially add to the operation.
Casualties at day’s end are nothing short of horrific; at least 8,000 and possibly as many as 9,000 were wounded in the haphazardly coordinated attack, which seems to have no unifying purpose or intent. Of this number at least 3,000 have been estimated as having been killed, making June 6th by far, the worst single day of the war which has dragged on now - with no exit strategy in sight - as the American economy still struggles to recover from Herbert Hoover’s depression and its 25% unemployment.
Military spending has skyrocketed the national debt into uncharted regions, lending another cause for concern. When and if the current hostilities finally end it may take generations for the huge debt to be repaid.
On the planning end of things, experts wonder privately if enough troops were committed to the initial offensive and whether at least another 100,000 troops should have been added to the force structure before such an audacious undertaking. Communication problems also have made their presence felt making that an area for further investigation by the appropriate governmental committees.
On the home front, questions and concern have been voiced. A telephone poll has shown dwindling support for the wheel-chair bound Commander In Chief, which might indicate a further erosion of support for his now three year-old global war.
Of course the President’s precarious health has always been a question. He has just recently recovered from pneumonia and speculation persists whether or not he has sufficient stamina to properly sustain the war effort. This remains a topic of furious discussion among those questioning his competency.
Today’s costly and chaotic landing compounds the President’s already large credibility problem.
More darkly, this phase of the war, commencing less than six months before the next general election, gives some the impression that Roosevelt may be using this offensive simply as a means to secure re-election in the fall.
Underlining the less than effective Ally attack, German casualties - most of them innocent and hapless conscripts - seem not to be as severe as would be imagined. A German minister who requested anonymity stated categorically that “the aggressors were being driven back into the sea amidst heavy casualties, the German people seek no wider war."
"The news couldn't be better," Adolph Hitler said when he was first informed of the D-Day assault earlier this afternoon. "As long as they were in Britain we couldn't get at them. Now we have them where we can destroy them."
German minister Goebbels had been told of the Allied airborne landings at 0400 hours.
"Thank God, at last," he said. "This is the final round."
© 2003-2004 William A. Mayer, all rights reserved.
Well done.
"Quagmire! Quagmire! Roosevelt's policies have been a miserable failure! It's time for Eisenhower to resign! Why is there still German resistance three years later?" etc. etc., ad nauseum
"Unamed sources have disclosed that Supreme Allied Command Dwight Eisenhower has already prepared a statement of apology, pointing out that the massive failure is his own fault. The public release of this statement is thought to be imminent, and will likely be followed by his resignation."
29th Let's Go!
http://www.29divisionassociation.org/
Yep, heads should roll over this.
Never heard of this, could you please source that if possible?
thanks!
Go, go, go!!
So the press were traitors back then as well.
I had never heard of it either (but my WWII knowledge is pitiful). They showed that the other night in the Tom Selleck movie about Ike. He had written a statement taking full responsibility for the plan--he said he was expendable; Roosevelt and Churchill were not.
It was shown in this A&E presentation about Ike.
First entry may not be the very best, but (at the bottom), the first entry does make clear mention of this.
As others have pointed out, this note was featured in the Tom Selleck D-Day movie just shown on A&E.
}:-)4
116th Infantry Regiment BUMP.
(No, I never served, but the 116th Infantry were, and still are, my National Guard homeboys from Virginia. They're the reason that the National D-Day Memorial is in little Bedford, Virginia...no city in the US suffered higher proportional casualties among their men than Bedford.)
}:-)4
My God, how things have changed. If America only had the attitude now it had back then.
Not sure exactly what you mean, this article is coverage of D-Day as it might be done with the faux journalists of today. Hope that is clear.
Reporters during WWII were patriots first, news guys second.
Thx stealth guy, will check it out.
*ping*
Yes they were .. and there were also congress who went to Germany and came back with a bad report. There was NO WAY we could ever beat the Nazis.
That statement reminds me of what the spies said to Moses .. "there are giants in the land ... we are grasshoppers in THEIR sight" (which means the spies were more concerned with what the WORLD was saying, instead of what GOD told them to do). But JOSHUA and CALEB (who must have been conservatives) said, "LET US GO UP AND POSSES THE LAND".
Thankfully, the spirit of Joshua and Caleb resides in President Bush and his admin.
yes if we could kick ass like that again and survive the media reaction life would be phat...
Not sure exactly what your post means, would you amplify it a bit?
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