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Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II. Up until then, the Axis was still in control of much of the continent. This day marked a major turning point in the war in Europe. To the troops, American General Eisenhower sent a message beginning with "You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you."

Edited by sirbenedictvs
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If I say "Damn...why did they hold back the Panzer Divisions for days...?", that will get me in trouble, won't it?

:ph34r:

 

I have no idea why the high command held back Rommel's units. If he had his way and actually went to northern France, it would've been an onslaught.

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If I say "Damn...why did they hold back the PanzerDivisions for days...?", that will get me in trouble, won't it?

:ph34r:

 

You should change that to 'thankfully they held back the PanzerDivisions for days', then you don't need to worry about getting into trouble. :lol:

 

I have no idea why the high command held back Rommel's units. If he had his way and actually went to northern France, it would've been an onslaught.

 

 

There was a documentary on the BBC the other day about it, what I got from it was that Hitler was so far up his own a**e that he thought whatever he said was right. He didn't give Rommel the freedom he needed on the battlefield, which perhaps in hindsight contributed to Rommel's involvement in the 20 July plot against Hitler. The only major advantage the allies had when entering France was almost total control of the air, which probably was the deciding factor. Whenever the Nazis sent messages to each other about plans etc, they often revealed important locations of troops, tanks and the like, and these messages were intercepted and decoded at Bletchley Park, which led to the allies bombing the hell out of said locations.

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The German Wehrmacht was a very well trained and very well seasoned military force; the only thing that brought it down was the chain of command. Every decision to be made by the field officers had to go up the chain of command and sometimes to the German high command for approval. The German chain of command during WWII was FUBAR, literally.

 

Rommel believed the invasion would take place in the north of France near the English Channel (the most likely avenue to move hundreds of thousands of troops and tanks quickly) and he wanted his Panzer divisions be stationed close to the region and to serve as a quick reaction force pending on where the invasion would take place. The German high command received misinformation from the Allies and counterintelligence that made them believe the invasion force will come from North Africa (the Allies even used inflatable tanks and tank sounds to deceive German reconnaissance units). Rommel didn't believe it and was confident that the invasion would take place in the north. He requested to move his units to the region but Hitler and all his wisdom disagreed and against the Desert Fox's better advice ultimately decided that his units are to remain to the south.

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