lwbloomer wrote:You make a persuasive argument.
Thank you.
lwbloomer wrote:Incidentally, if German infantry had attacked Omaha beach near the height of the battle there, they probably could have pretty much exterminated the Allied troops in that section and the further landings there would have been called off. It was very close as it was on that beach.
Yes, very likely. However, the relevant mobile reserve (915 Regiment of 352 Division) spent the night cycling from Bayeux to Isigny and the morning cycling back to Bayeux to counter attack the British on Gold beach. One battalion was detached to Omaha where it turned up in the afternoon and got bogged down trying to hold the Americans who had by this time worked their way into the villages behind the beach.
lwbloomer wrote:So all in all, I'll retract my labeling of the unmoveable units as a "problem" and instead call it a "challenge" built in by the programmers. My apologies to the programming staff; I should have thought about all this a bit more before calling it a problem.
Most people don’t realise just how patchy the quality of German troops was by this time. Some – 2nd SS Panzer, Panzer Lehr – were superb; some were ok (21st Panzer was partially equipped with French tanks captured in 1940); and some were rubbish. For example, the average age of the 709 Division (which held Utah beach) was 36. (For the American army it was 25.) Most infantry divisions had at least one Ost battalion attached; made up of Russian ex-PoWs. Over a sixth of German rifle battalions in Normandy were Ost battalions.
An anecdote on this. Some ‘German’ troops were captured on Utah beach. They were Koreans. Korea was a Japanese conquest and they had been drafted into the Japanese army. And captured by the Russians at Khalkhin Gol and drafted into the Russian army. Then captured by the Germans at Moscow and forced into their army. They manned their trenches on D Day with a German sergeant standing behind them with a drawn pistol. In game terms, can you imagine what would happen if this lot were sent over the top to counter attack the beach?
Not to mention that Rommel’s emphasis on constructing fortifications and obstacles inevitably came at the expense of training. The beach front troops were so focused on the former that most had done little or even no training over the previous 6 months at even small unit level, much less at battalion or regimental level.
