SUICIDE MISSIONS OF D-DAY

[Melvin Loh]

Just saw this documentary on the HIST CHANNEL, which described the key role played by Allied 'suicide squads' to the success of the Normandy invasion, such as the US airborne pathfinders from the 82nd and 101st, the British 9th Para Bn assigned to assault the Merville Battery, and the UDTs who blasted thru the obstacles at Omaha Beach. It was argued that without these vital personnel succeeding in their missions, the invasion would've failed, with paratroopers being dropped even further off the mark and unable to achieve their assigned missions at all, German guns at Merville being able to zero in on Sword Beach and blast the British amphib landings with impunity, and the US forces being unable to make any headway off Omaha.

Any thoughts ?

[NapoleonXIV]

Can't say about that. The thing I've never understood about D-day is why we kept fighting so hard to take the heavily defended beaches when there were some where it seemed there was no resistance at all. Better to bring as much ashore as quickly and as easily as we can and worry about taking territory once we've got them rightly outnumbered. Even if they brought up reinforcements it would seem easier to just cut them off later than to try a frontal assault.

[David Howery]

IIRC, Omaha was the only beach that was a problem in the invasion. Utah had a few hitches, but went more or less as planned, and the Brits captured all of their's pretty smoothly (one of the big reasons for this was their damn good planning for DD tanks... the Americans planned a lot worse and lost most of theirs). The command was within a hair of pulling off of Omaha, but the breakthrough came just in time....