Question about storming the beach at Normandy

Question

While watching "Saving Private Ryan" which to some vets said was a pretty close reenactment of it... I am curious as to why we didn't just send missles from our ships bombarding some of the key targets to make the mission a bit easier?

Did we just not have the equipment back then to do that?

Answer 1

Softening of the Defenses was to be carried out by Naval gun fire and Bombers flying out of England.  Naval gun fire was wildly in accurate except up close or if you had a observer to call in correction.  Bombers flying the morning mission seemed to have missed the defenses and drop ordnance behind the beach.  

Both Bombs and Naval gun fire was to crater teh beach so at least there would be cover.  That didn't happen either.  Omaha was a sprint from the surf to the shingle through tank trap and barbed wire.  Look at all the other landing site, Sword, Juno, Gold, and Utah they were a cake walk compared to Omaha.  One saying grace was a destoyer came in and started direct fire shelling of defenses on Omaha.  That let the infantry get off the beach and up the cliff.

Answer 2

During WW2 there was no such thing as smart bombs. That is why if you needed to take out a target in Berlin you had to level the entire city of Berlin with a massive air strike of hundreds of B-17 or B-24 bombers. Same thing on the tactical level, before the infantry stormed the beaches thousands of bombs were dropped along with thousands of more rounds from naval gunfire, it all just missed.  

Answer 3

Are guns where not that accurate back then.  There was a massive bombardment of the shore before the troops landed, it was just not that effective.  To call in supporting fire on the enemy from the shore was dangerous, back then naval gun fire was danger close at 2 km.  Meaning it could land anywhere within 2 km from the target.  So if you where on the beach 50 meter from a bunker US Navy gun fire could just as easily hit you as the bunker.

Answer 4

No missles in WW2 although Germany had something something called the buzz bomb. We did use planes to bomb targets behind the beach though.

Answer 5

Barry you are completely wrong.

the Germans knew they were going to get attacked a day and half if not longer before the initial attack and during that time they were bombarded.

Answer 6

No, just big guns on ships that shot huge shells that rarely came close to hitting what they were aiming at. No missiles, no jets, no remote-controlled drones.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for those soldiers. Complete madness.

Answer 7

The only missiles in our inventory were very inaccurate rockets.  There is film of these being fired from Higgins boats.  There were a number of these, which, instead of carrying troops had banks of rocket launchers in the well of the boat, and fired them all in one spectacular barrage.  If they hit anything though it was just a happy accident.

The reason the Rangers had to climb the cliff at Pont du Hoc was that the artillery emplacement there could not be hit by the aerial bombs of the day.

The Germans had crude "guided" missiles including the V1 and V2, but these were so inaccurate they could only hope to hit something as large as London.  They also had "glider bombs" which were dropped by an aircraft and had to be guided by radio remote control.  They used one of these to sink the Italian battleship Roma, after Italy came over to the Allied side.

John Kennedy's big brother Joe was killed after he volunteered to work on a very secret program using a "war weary" B-24 bomber, packed with explosives, to attack the German "sub pens" in various small French ports.  They had very crude radio controlled servos which could guide the plane once it was airborne, but somebody had to take off in it, and then bail out.  They never could get this to work well enough to try, and the sub pens (with 30 foot thick reinforced concrete roofs) are still there.

In all the amphibious attacks in WWII the best support for the landing force was naval gunfire.  This was especially effective once the troops were ashore and radio contact could be made with the support ships to correct the aim of the gunners.  Of all the "Duplex Drive" tanks which were supposed to be in the attack, all but two sank when they were launched miles from the beach.  There was one "self-propelled" artillery unit which did get to Omaha Beach and was very effective, but this was something new under the sun, and nobody really understood what to do with them.

Answer 8

For one we bombarded the beach beforehand, but it was ineffective because of the strength of the defenses. Also there was heavy fog so it was hard to see even where you were shelling. Plus the Germans could hide inside the bunkers and just come out after the shelling unscathed.

Answer 9

No missiles were available back then. Bombs were not much good as the Allied planes had to contend not only with the massive amount of German firepower but also because the Germans were really dug in in and on the cliffs.

Snipers could not pick off the German gunners because of the chaotic nature of the battlefield and that it was difficult to get close enough.  

Answer 10

Naval gunfire was used extensively to "soften up" the beaches, but many German troops were    sheltered in concrete  pillboxes, which would withstand  naval gunfire.

Aerial bombardment might  have been used, but it would have compromised the element of surprise. Since trhe landing was at dawn,  the bombers would have had to do their bombing the day before, and this would have tipped off the Germans as to where the invasion was going to be.

Answer 11

There was a naval bombardment but it is not effective against fortified emplacements.

In spite of bombs from planes and shells from ships there were still plenty of Germans left near the beach.  

Answer 12

The allies did not have guided missiles at that time-later development and actually not really good at ground to ground, ship to ground or air to ground until the 1960's.  Germans did have some tv guided bombs but they were ahead in that area as in about all missile and rocket research.