D-Day History: What went wrong for Germany?

On June 6, 1944, the allied forces of the United States, Great Britain and Canada, after two months of diversionary maneuvers, began the largest landing operation in history - the Normandy landings. Despite heavy losses during the D-Day, the Allies were able to win a landslide victory and achieve their goal - to open a second, front to fight the Nazis. In today's video, we will find out how the Allies deceived and defeated the Germans, and what were the results.

[MrDlt]

Its interesting to me that Germany was caught off guard by the D-Day attack because the location was considered too difficult, because that's exactly the strategy they used when attacking France through the Ardennes and around the Maginot line in 1940.

[csjrogerson]

"What went wrong for Germany?" Everything. Shortest ever video - 1/4 second video.

[truxlee]

Serial Atlantic storms arriving along the French coast in early June were a given,
so the German defenders expected there would be little chance of a landing then.
Their weather service did not detect that one particularly large incoming storm was
actually two separate storms with an acceptable landing window between them...
They were proved partially right when a later storm damaged the British Mulberry port.
Fortunately, lots of spare parts were instantly available from the poorly assembled, totally
wrecked, American Mulberry and the Brit one was soon back in normal operation.

[julianmarsh]

No unified plan. Runstedt wanted no effort made at the landings while keeping the panzer forces intact, far beyond the reach of Allied naval guns. Once the Allies spread out moving inland, opportunities would be there for strong German flank attacks which would destroy their enemies. Rommel said Allied air strength would make it impossible to carry out those flanking attacks and instead insisted on everything being upfront, including the panzers. The invasion would, he said, have to be defeated during the first 24 hours or not at all. German losses would be heavy but if the invasion was thwarted, it would be well worth whatever it cost. Hitler split the difference, allowing about half the armored strength up close to the beaches with the other half held back. This pleased neither of the German commanders, for obvious reasons. So, not enough up front and not enough held back.

[jahmah]

He Adolf expected attacks on the scale the Russians conducted on a near daily stage & really thought Normandy was nothing more than a diversion so withheld the bulk of his force, by the time he realised the allies were coming through right there it was too late, surprise logistics & an overwhelming amount of numbers just could not be thwarted

[stevewilson]

They made a disastrous choice in selecting landing spots. Utah should have been moved down to where Omaha was, with the rest moved further down the coast. This would have eliminated the disastrous and fortified Utah beach, as well as the hedgerows inland. It would have also allowed surrounding Caen instead of attacking only one side. These simple changes would have greatly speeded progress though the area, allowed Patton to reach Falaise and surround the Germans much faster, trapping more of them. Undoubtedly Eisenhower and his commanders did a fantastic job organizing the invasion, but they stumbled on picking the sites.

[kingkobra]

The Germans bit off more than they could chew and that is why they lost.

[gscheidhaferlvomdienst]

First, that Hitler was silly enough, to drift in war ...