NAVAL AND MARITIME

ACADEMY

AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS
ASSIGNMENT

LT (INF) BLSM

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PINGO NRI 4271
 FAILURES OF NORMANDY LANDING IN BOTH SIDES WITH RELATED TO THE
PHASES OF AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION

1. June 6, 1944 was just a Tuesday to most people; but for thousands in on the biggest secret
of the year, it was D-Day: the largest seaborne invasion in history. We celebrate this day as one
of the greatest achievements of the Allied war effort. It was massive on every level. It combined
the Allies' industrial strength, the inventiveness of their military engineers and planners, and the
coordination of all branches of service on land, sea, and air.

2. But if you've seen the movie "Saving Private Ryan," you know that for people in the first
wave, things didn't seem as prosperous, especially in the area of America called the Omaha Beac
h. It is a terrible whirlpool of chaos and death. All the careful planning, specially designed tools,
and months of training could not have saved the thousands who died that morning. The planes dr
opped 13,000 bombs before landing: none of them hit the target; Heavy naval bombardment also
failed to destroy German positions. As a result, the Omaha Beach has become a deadly scene wit
h victims dying in the rising wave.
Red yordle sign in Reims, France.

3. If the men got to the beach at all, they were soaked, half-drowned, and seriously
weakened from seasickness. They were often without an officer to guide them, a functioning
radio, or even a working weapon. Many of them were so far from their landing zones they didn't
recognize where they were. The vital support of amphibious tanks never made it to Omaha,
because the vehicles had never been tested in such high seas. Those launched sank in minutes.
Tanks that did make it to shore were quickly destroyed.

4. With such catastrophic failure on Omaha, how is it that the landings succeeded? Well,
first, the Allies weren't the only ones finding failure that day. The German High Command was
very slow to react to the invasion; the Allies had been successful in fooling them into thinking
the real attack would be far to the north. The German divisions held in reserve could have

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deployed in the first hours to devastating effect. But they weren't released until 3pm. Hitler'd
stayed up late into the night, and slept in on D-Day; he had to authorize personally the release of
those divisions. Also, communication between German units was successfully disrupted, largely
by paratroopers dropped hours before dawn. The Germans resisted fiercely within their defense
zones, but knew little about the bigger picture. Time worked against them as the Allies advanced.

5. Most importantly, even where chaos reigned, the Allies did their jobs. Ragtag soldiers
organized themselves into effective units and improvised assaults. Navy ships came in so close
as to almost run aground to offer fire support. Rangers and paratroopers executed missions in
spite of appalling losses. Engineers cleared obstacles and minefields under heavy fire. And the
Allies owned the skies and kept the German Luftwaffe grounded.So we commemorate
the paradox of this victory. The planning and preparation were unprecedented. But when the
plans failed, it came down to dumb luck and desperate courage to plug the gaps. Planning is after
all, just the fantasy of action.