D-Day Dweebs part 1

D-Day Dweebs part 1

I hate this time of year. TV fills up with moronic D-Day shows, many of which provide inaccurate information. People watch them and assume they are now "D-Day experts." I call these folks, or anyone that thinks you can be an expert without doing extensive reading, especially of period documents, a D-Day Dweeb.

One popular thought in these shows is that The Americans screwed up by not providing more pre-invasion naval gunfire support for the landings. Not only to make holes in the beach, but to knock out the emplacements.

 Hmmm, where did that some from?  Especially because, if you take the time to actually read the records, the US Navy specifically said before the invasion they wanted more time to shell the beaches. Sometimes this is lumped in with the idea that the Americans in the UK refused to listen to invasion experts form the Pacific.

This, to be polite, is Bull Hockey.

Fact: The Americans did have men from the Pacific come to England and talk to them about how they did their invasions. These lessons were taken into consideration, but as is clearly stated in reports that most of the suggestions were only suited to invasions on small islands or where there was not a chance of reinforcement.  Thus an informed decision was made to not adopt those concepts that did not seem like they would work in France.  To suggest that the ETO folks ignored advice that would have made the invasion better planned, or save lives, because "it was not invented here" does them a great dis-service.

 As to the case of pre-invasion naval shelling. The US Navy knew the time allotted was too short. They specifically asked for more time. At the very least another hour. This was refused as it would have upset the time table of the British landings. And who was the guy that refused it?   Why the Overall and commander: Montgomery.  So with a shorter than requested fire period, are they going to shell the beaches to make holes, or try and take out as many enemy emplacements as possible?

Now, no one happens to know everything about everything, although I have met people who seem to think they do. If someone can come up with period records showing my period records are in error I would certainly like to know about it. But until then, evidence in hand trumps evidence from a TV show, movie, or D-day Dweeb.