Microsoft Close Combat manual Allies Invade on D-Day, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

Chapter 4 The Normandy Campaign in Close Combat 69

an Allied invasion is with a rapid counterattack on the beaches from behind a fortified coastal strip. However, Rommel’s superior, Field Marshal Gert von Runstedt opposes his defensive philosophy. Believing that nothing can stop the Allied invasion, von Runstedt thinks that the majority of German defenses should be moved inland, away from Allied naval guns. From there, German tanks will be better able to strike at the invaders as they attempt to establish beachheads and supply lines. Because the German chain of command is unclear even at the highest levels, it is never determined whether Rommel or von Runstedt will control the battle after the invasion, and neither one gets all the defenses or forces he wants.

Preparation of the German defenses on the Normandy coast is hampered by shortages, and by the Allied air forces. Their bombing attacks on Germany have caused the German air force, the Luftwaffe, to largely abandon France to protect German skies. The knowledge that the Allies control the skies above western France adds fuel to Rommel’s argument. In early 1944, German troop and supply movement is further hindered by an Allied aerial bombing campaign known as the Transpor- tation Plan, which targets railroads and marshaling yards in western France.

Despite these numerous difficulties, six infantry divisions of the German Seventh Army, commanded by Colonel General Friedrich Dollmann and covering Normandy and Brittany, are available to oppose the Allied invasion. A single Panzer division is in reserve near Caen, with three more held inland—and effectively out of Rommel’s reach— by the German High Command. These divisions can be released only under orders from Hitler himself, who wants to save them in case of an invasion at the Pas de Calais. Although Rommel’s beach defenses are incomplete, they are still formidable, and have strong Panzer forces waiting behind them. The Germans have more than enough firepower and manpower to make the Allied invasion force pay a heavy price.

The Allies Invade on D-Day

After being pushed back a month to June 5, and then further delayed by bad weather for another day, the greatest armed assault ever attempted—the long-awaited Allied invasion of France—finally gets underway on June 6. The first troops to land on French soil are from three U.S. and British airborne divisions, which are dropped at night to seize towns and bridgeheads behind the invasion beaches. Simulta- neously, an armada of 5,300 landing craft, supply vessels, and warships carrying over 150,000 Allied troops head across the English Channel for the Calvados coast.

“The war will be won or lost on the beaches. We’ll have only one chance to stop the enemy and that’s while he’s in the water.”

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel