RE: White supremacists and counter protesters clash in Charlottesville
August 20, 2017 at 6:20 pm
(August 20, 2017 at 6:06 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:(August 20, 2017 at 5:12 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: No argument about the bravery of those involved, natch, but another part of the CF which kept the landing boats from getting any closer was the three days of 'softening up' bombardment which accomplished little more than to tell the Germans where to place their reserves. Sort of made the feint at Calais pointless.
Boru
Well, they still didn't have much opportunity to shift forces -- the bridges had been dropped by air attacks, and even moving local reinforcements was very problematic for the Germans.
On the point of bombardment, though, Omaha beach received less than one hour of bombardment on the morning of the landings -- and because of weather the shipfire was directed behind the beaches, and largely inaccurate. Most of the US Army principals involved were for years afterwards bitter about the lack of pre-invasion bombardment support.
Once the invasion at Omaha had stalled, however, the US Navy's destroyers performed sterling work with direct gunfire support.
Opening moves especially in an operation of such scale are generally going to be chaotic .
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