Omaha beach

[Dpalme01]

So you're saying they would have taken it but at a greater cost.

[Kiwiwriter]

I feel that Omaha was critical. Without that beach secured, the Allied offensive would be split in two and liable to be destroyed piecemeal.

[Dpalme01]

but the allies would have joined up behind the beach
DP

[sapper]

May I (Without prejudice) offer this, as a main reason why they suffered so badly on Omaha? Despite the losses of the DD tanks they needed, there were two vital elements missing from the American landings.
The first, but in my opinion, not the most important, was the refusal of the Americans to make use of “Hobarts Funnies” to assist the landings.

But, what I think was of the greatest importance was the lack of “highly specialised Sapper teams” tasked with the vitally important job of removing anything that stood in the way….. No matter who, or what… and also to provide a mine free passage off the beach to the lateral road that ran parallel with the beach.

The reason why so many young Americans were killed, it seems to me, was this lack of small, but highly trained assault teams. That element was missing. For in the end they forced a way off the beach, but not before a massacre had taken place….With those teams it would have been the initial task, no matter what, to open up the Enemy defences.

It has often been said that Sword Beach was easy…That is just not so. I can provide all the proof that is needed for that statement.
Sapper.. A member of the Royal Engineers Company that provided the three assault teams that opened up the path from the beach to the road beyond, on “Sword” Queen Red, and Queen White, sectors without letting anyone get in the way.

I am not trying in any way to belittle my American friends, for I fought alongside them. And I might add, Factual History in the cold hard light of day, is so often, completely different from the Hollywood versions, for they tend to cloud what actually occured.
Sapper

[Dpalme01]

Originally posted by sapper@Nov 9 2004, 03:38 PM
May I (Without prejudice) offer this, as a main reason why they suffered so badly on Omaha? Despite the losses of the DD tanks they needed, there were two vital elements missing from the American landings.
The first, but in my opinion, not the most important, was the refusal of the Americans to make use of “Hobarts Funnies” to assist the landings.

But, what I think was of the greatest importance was the lack of “highly specialised Sapper teams” tasked with the vitally important job of removing anything that stood in the way….. No matter who, or what… and also to provide a mine free passage off the beach to the lateral road that ran parallel with the beach.

The reason why so many young Americans were killed, it seems to me, was this lack of small, but highly trained assault teams. That element was missing. For in the end they forced a way off the beach, but not before a massacre had taken place….With those teams it would have been the initial task, no matter what, to open up the Enemy defences.

It has often been said that Sword Beach was easy…That is just not so. I can provide all the proof that is needed for that statement.
Sapper.. A member of the Royal Engineers Company that provided the three assault teams that opened up the path from the beach to the road beyond, on “Sword” Queen Red, and Queen White, sectors without letting anyone get in the way.

I am not trying in any way to belittle my American friends, for I fought alongside them. And I might add, Factual History in the cold hard light of day, is so often, completely different from the Hollywood versions, for they tend to cloud what actually occured.
Sapper

Quoted post

I agree completely with the funnies part. The Americans were almost as bad as the french- stuck in a rut and refusing to use any thing new. They were lucky to have accepted the landing craft>

I have to admit that I was always under the impression that the Americans got the harder beaches.

Thanks for the clarification
Dp

[sapper]

What is so often forgotten, when friends write in giving their opinons on various operations, and indeed, battles.

Is their total inability to understand the atmosphere pf war in which these operations take place. It really is a matter of; you have to experience the battle or what is taking place "At that time"

No author, writer, or comentator, can ever really know that what he is writing about has anything but the very faintest tenuous thread with actuallity.

That is why, for many years, I have written about those times, and at the same time, to ensure that the memory of my fallen friends will not be forgotten.

I am sometimes quite staggered at the innuendo that passes for fact. Or the reshaping of history, so that the real events fade into the background to be superceded by Authors, or Hollywood versions.

The Veterans find what certain Authors have wriiten, as absolute nonesense, some times with whole divisions lost! and units put in places where in truth they never got within miles of the area in question.

Most of us feel we are fighting a losing battle, a battle lost to some author sitting in a cosy chair writing about something they know absolutely nothing about, and in the process fulfill thei predujices.
Sapper

[Kiwiwriter]

Sapper, I know how you feel. Some guy in an armchair, sipping his bourbon, watching a documentary on TV, becomes an instant expert on what you lived through after watching 20 minutes of said documentary. Walter Lord said it best in his book on the Titanic, "After the sinking, the bronzed men of the sea were replaced by a pallid cast cast of journalists, investigators, and ultimately, historians."

[sapper]

Right! I do like that Kiwiwriter!
We old fellows are quite amazed at what we read at times. some of it is quite frankly incredulous. Canadians landing first on Sword Beach, Wrong! No mention of Third British Infantry, did not exist! In fact some of it is so garbled that it seems the book should be referred to the trading standards as being fraudulent.
Cheers

[Kiwiwriter]

Just remember that I'm part of that "pallid cast." At the same time, as a writer, as I've said in another thread here, I bust my butt to put out a piece of work, and get an answering snottygram from a reader outraged that I haven't written the book he wanted to read. Well, I'm not a psychic...if you can do it better, do it.

[sapper]

Ah! There's the rub....That just proves what I have said...So many authors have tp write what their readers want to read.
Sapper