Normandy 1944

[IronDuke99]

One of the things that I think gets overlooked is how very powerful Allied Naval gunfire was in Normandy in 1944.

A 15inch naval gun could fire at ranges up to almost 22 miles -ie, twice as far inland as Caen- and warships (no matter what crap World of Warships might come out with) all carried HE rounds. A large calibre Warship HE round was a very fearsome thing that could flip even a Tiger tank on its back.

Most of the Normandy battles in June and July should feature Naval Gun Fire Support on the Allied side. In fact it was a major deciding factor in the German's pulling back from close to the coast.

In contrast Allied aircraft were not as effective as they thought they were against German armour. At the time even the American Army Air Force thought that RAF rocket firing Typhoons were the best Allied air force tank busters. Research, after the war, showed they were much less effective than the Air Forces thought they were (when on earth as that ever happened!) Most of those eight, unguided, rockets simply missed... Allied air power was mostly effective against soft vehicles, very unfortunate horses and trains, rather than AFV's.

A Panzer Lehr Division Commander gives a long list of losses to Allied air attacks, over days, that include a whole five tanks...