Maundu

Why was out of 16 potential landing places Normandy picked as the scene for the allied invasion? Why not for example the dutch shore and then especially the province of Zeeland? Its waterways run for miles inland. Control them and the allies would have an beachhead. If the southern approach would be cut of, the sea port of Antwerp could then easily be captured. Then more troops ans material could land for the push towards the industrial Ruhr area.. which is much closer to the dutch shore then the French.

I found this hypothese in a novel but it would make perfect sense to me.. did the allied high command sacrifice all those advantages just for a shorter crossing?

SPERRO

The Normandy Beaches were tested for sand compaction etc from the point of view of armour, the only viable area to land 5 allied army's in a cohesive manner.

diddyriddick

An excellent point. There are a limited number of beaches suitable for a large scale invasion on the northwestern coast of continental Europe. There are tide, sand, and other issues to consider.

Additionally, the only place that would have given deeper air cover was the Pas de calais. Since the logical choice would be the Pas de Calais, the allies chose Normandy to confuse the German high command. It worked-Hitler wouldn't release the armor reserves because he thought Normandy was a diversion from the "real" invasion, the pas de Calais.

Finally, the allies had to consider how they were going to supply the armies in the field once on the continent (this became a real problem for the allies in the winter of 44-45). The western french ports offered the shortest route for the allied convoys coming across the Atlantic. Moreover, taking out the western French ports severely curtailed U-Boat operations outside of the Baltic/North Sea.

Kevinmeath

Must run but I believe the range (or lack of it) of the Spitfire was a major concern.

Richard Potato

Range of fighters, certainly. Same reason for landing at Salerno instead of further north.

Qymaen

It's ironic because Hitler initially believed that the Allies would land at Normandy. He still believed that until, I may be wrong, a few weeks before the actual landings at Normandy.

Kevinmeath

Yes you are wrong, he still actually believed it for a few days AFTER the landings.

I think the opperation was called Fortitude and was the creation of a Dummy army (at times blow up tanks and signallers talking to each other all day etc).

diddyriddick

And that dummy army was led by none other than George Patton.

srb7677

The landings pretty much had to take place on the north coast of France or Belgium, in order to be within effective range of British based fighter cover. In these areas, only two locations were fully suitable for widespread beach landings - the Pas de Calais and Normandy. Of the two, the Pas de Calais was the shortest sea crossing and the more direct route into Germany. Because of this, however, it was better defended, with more fully prepared defensive works. It was thus believed that the chances of successfully getting ashore were greater in the less well prepared Normandy sector.

Spartacuss

Oh yeah... George Patton and his never defeated 1st Army. Patton was appoplectic at getting this assignment, as he thought his punishment for his faux pas in the Med were over. It was, but he still looked on the assignment as continuing punishment and thought his combat command career was over. He was told later, and well into the implementation of Operation Fortitude, that he would be given command of the Third Army and turned loose in France once the objectives of the invasion were pretty much secured. There was a second fake army established in Scotland, I think, headed by a British officer. The ficticious British Fourth Army. Intended to keep the Germans fully invested in defending Norway and Scandinavia as well. Oddly, the command of this group was a Colonel Rory MacLeod, rather than a General. Apparently the Germans never picked up on this, unless MacLeod was referred to as a general in all the fake communications and such. The entire Operation Fortitude can be looked on as one of the greatest and most successful deceptions in warfare.