Thoughts on WWII » Archive for February 2010
Airborne Landings on D-Day
Another posting from my current class on D-Day and the Normandy Campaign. How did the landings go? (answer, badly scattered). How successful were the troops in fulfilling their mission? The landings were very badly scattered, at least for the Americans, throughout the Cotentin. I believe a big reason for this was the caliber of the pilots and their training. The AAF didn’t use their best pilots to fly the transport planes. The best pilots were flying the fighters and bombers. Also, these pilots were generally not flying over an active combat zone in their transport aircraft. And they definitely didn’t fly over a combat zone at 500 or so ft in thick flak. They weren’t trained well enough to fly in the situation they were put into, so some panicked. The … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, D-Day, European Theater (ETO)
Class on D-Day and the Normandy Campaign
Ok, I am taking a short on-line class on D-Day and the Normandy Campaign so I thought I would take some of my comments in the discussions from the class and post here also since they are relevant to what this blog is about. Some of the comments I post will be my direct answers to questions for discussion posed by the professor so I will include the question as I do in this first post. 2. Why were American Army planners, reflecting General Marshall’s strongly held views, insistent upon mobilizing all possible resources and manpower for an invasion of France in 1943? Why, indeed, did Marshall believe that an even earlier invasion attempt (SLEDGEHAMMER) might be necessary? The US wanted to strike across the channel in 1943 to make a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Army, D-Day, European Theater (ETO)
Perspective on the Attack on Pearl Harbor
I’m reading the book OVERLORD: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings and on the very first page of chapter 1 he says something that really gave me a new perspective on the attack on Pearl Harbor. He said “Then, in the dying days of the year, came the miracle of Pearl Harbor.” The attack on Pearl Harbor will never be forgotten by the United States, it was an inexcusable act by the Japanese that brought us into the war. As Americans, it is a very dark day in our history and I personally wish it did not happen as it did and I suspect most Americans feel the same. However, that is a very centralized and narrow view of that event. It does not look at the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Book, Japan, Pacific Theater, Pearl Harbor
