World War II Question?

Question

I was watching the movie Saving Private Ryan and if anyone who was there at that war could you please tell me why they didn't take out those beach posts with an air campaign. Those soldiers were sent to the slaughter. It didn't look like we had a chance. Let's open the doors to a reign of gunfire. It is depicted to me that we were missing an air strike first. Please someone enlighten me on this subject. Thanks! And all respect to those who have served.

Answer 1

That's easy, the naval guns and aerial bombardment overshot their targets at Omaha beach due to a late morning mist. The gunners could not see their targets and they waited just a few seconds to release their bombs. The result, the pill boxes and beach defenses were pretty welll intact.

Those in the beaches didn't see the invasion fleet right away either....when the mist was burned off by the morning sun, they were all of sudden surprised by its immensity. Calls to the rear commanders were made and initially were not believed.

Answer 2

World War II started primarily because the American people were unwilling to join the League of Nations at the end of World War I, thereby removing what would have been that organization's major military power. This led to, or allowed at least, Hitler's rise to power in Germany. There were several points at which he was thoroughly overextended and any kind of a show of force by the League or even just a few of its member nations would have put an end to his plans, but the other European powers continually caved in to him, appeasing him at almost every turn and allowing the territory, manpower and raw materials under his rule to continually increase. Then when the Friendship Pact between Germany and Russia was signed, his back was covered and he could attack, first Poland and then the countries to the west. American isolationism was the main cause.

Answer 3

The only way we could have had a reasonably good chance for success was to keep the whole thing as secret as possible. The guy who answered that we couldn't bomb the beach too much is absolutely correct. Anything that could have tipped off the Germans would have disastrous consequences. Think that if we had bombed the beach for one whole day before the invasion, It would prove that when we did land, it was the real thing and not a diversion for the Pas-DE-Calais invasion the Germans were expecting. It would have let Hitler release the Panzer reserves earlier and they would have pushed us back into the sea because most of our DD tanks had floundered and sunk.

Answer 4

First, the Allies would lose the element of surprise. Second, air strikes would not have been that effective against the "beach posts" and bunkers. Air power was not what it is today. Third, air power was used, as was a lengthy bombardment from off shore ships. But, the Germans were well "dug in."

Answer 5

My uncle was a Ranger on Utah. The Gun emplacements on that position were re-enforced steel and concrete structures. High altitude bombing was ineffectual, low altitude bombing also had little effect and was severely dangerous due to the large amount of anti-aircraft weapons the Nazis had placed around those sites.

A bomb that could destroy that type of target wasn't used due the the limited amount of those types of weapons having been developed and proven. The British block-buster or "earthquake" bomb would have been effective, but there weren't enough of them and those that did exist at that time were being used against the Nazi sub-pins on the coast of France to stop the invasion ships from being destroyed by U-Boats on D-Day. A better plan would have been a faint by the American amphibious troop carriers rather than going straight on in a frontal assault, combined with heavy smoke projectiles fired from the ships guns at distance, forcing the German's to use up ordinance (ammunition) and change barrels on their machine guns. ( The barrels over heated after rapid firing). But hindsight is 20/20 and the ships were concerned about hitting mines that had been placed in the water by the German's.

We would not have lost the element of surprise, the allies were destroying mines in the water at those locations "WEEKS" before they launched the attack. Hitler was convinced that there would only be a diversionary attack on Normandy and that the major attack would come at Calais led by Gen. Patton. This was due to a "ghost" Army being created with Patton in command. The German's considered him to be the Allies best field commander. deceptive radio transmissions were being used to convince Hitler of the "ghost" army's existence. Along with blow-up tanks, trucks and guns that could be viewed by German spy's and air re-con. The night before the invasion The allies dropped hundreds of toy dummy soldiers at Calais that would set off a series of fire-crackers when they struck the ground. Bombing of targets around Calais was also part of the deception. All the German Generals including Rommel didn't believe that the invasion would come at Calais, but were afraid to go against what Hitler had ordered them to protect.

Part of the problem at Utah could be placed on the Airborne mis-drops on the night before the invasion. They suffered heavy losses and were not able to inflict the expected cover of the troops landing at that location.

Time seemed to be of essence for the Allies in the attack. They wanted to get in quick and didn't expect the type of resistance the German's threw at the troops landing there.

Answer 6

The guns were bombed and bombarded but the soil is quite sandy and absorbed the explosions except for direct hits.
Technology was not as accurate as it is now.
As surprise was a big advantage the bombing could only start as the invasion forces were landing and had to stop once they were close to the defences.

Answer 7

Hi,,, I was not there, but i had 3 uncles that were.. they did try to have bombing missions on the line of defenses that the Germans held... but to not much success....and if they had kept bombing the same spots over and over, the Germans would have known where the invasion was coming...
That was the greatest or one of the greatest invasions ever made in history... the other was at Inchon, Korea....

good luck

Answer 8

They tried but that was a hard thing to do. also they didn't want to bomb the beach too much so the Germans would not suspect that was where they were going to land. the Germans would have sent more troops and would have killed even more.

Answer 9

dunno, maybe shortage of time, did they lose radio contact?? no idea