What would be the impact of the following events both coming together:
- An additional division is present in Normandy when the landings take place. This is a basic Wehrmacht division, but an extra division none the less... it's scattered throughout the countryside, but some elements are in place on Juno beach. While the Canadian landings suceede, they encounter trouble, and Canadian forces suffer about 3,100 dead and more injured, as opposed to 340 or so dead and some 739 injured as per OTL.
- The airborn landings go much worse than OTL - OTL projections assumed cassualties of 50% or more - the planners were overjoyed to get away with only 30%, while the paratroopers took their objectives, and all in all did quite well. Let's assume that instead of doing so well, they do a bit worse than projected - let's assume 55% losses, and altogether slightly worse performance than as per-OTL. This could happen for a number of reasons, including German AA teams being better prepared and trained, or the Luftwaffe making a suprise appearance, or any other sort of situation, combined with the presence in the area the paratroopers hit of extra troops from that other division.
I'm confident that the Americans would still push out of Normandy and go on to a situation similar to OTL, but what would the effects be? Assuming the fighting in the Boccage is even fiercer in this TL than in OTL, since that extra division is still there, and that the Canadians got mauled and the paratroopers as well... how will this impact allied performance? How much will it slow them by? Will the D-Day invasion be viewed differently later on? Immediatly after? What are your thoughts?
- An additional division is present in Normandy when the landings take place. This is a basic Wehrmacht division, but an extra division none the less... it's scattered throughout the countryside, but some elements are in place on Juno beach. While the Canadian landings suceede, they encounter trouble, and Canadian forces suffer about 3,100 dead and more injured, as opposed to 340 or so dead and some 739 injured as per OTL.
- The airborn landings go much worse than OTL - OTL projections assumed cassualties of 50% or more - the planners were overjoyed to get away with only 30%, while the paratroopers took their objectives, and all in all did quite well. Let's assume that instead of doing so well, they do a bit worse than projected - let's assume 55% losses, and altogether slightly worse performance than as per-OTL. This could happen for a number of reasons, including German AA teams being better prepared and trained, or the Luftwaffe making a suprise appearance, or any other sort of situation, combined with the presence in the area the paratroopers hit of extra troops from that other division.
I'm confident that the Americans would still push out of Normandy and go on to a situation similar to OTL, but what would the effects be? Assuming the fighting in the Boccage is even fiercer in this TL than in OTL, since that extra division is still there, and that the Canadians got mauled and the paratroopers as well... how will this impact allied performance? How much will it slow them by? Will the D-Day invasion be viewed differently later on? Immediatly after? What are your thoughts?