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Old 12th Jun 2021, 02:42
  #35 (permalink)  
Lookleft
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Australia
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On D-Day, we had plenty of P-47's and Hurricanes that could have provided rapid and accurate delivery provided we had the tactical network we developed within the next few months.
The Allies did not improve or even develop decent close air support in the Euro theater like the Pacific USMC and even Army units for all their beach heads prior to Normandy..
By D-Day the Hurricane was well and truly gone from RAF service in the ETO. You might be confusing the Hurricane with the Typhoon. I think you will also find that Eidenhower's Deputy Supreme Commander had already developed the tactical airforce and the cab rank concept in the desert and bought that concept to the Normandy campaign. D-Day fire support was largely a naval affair. The CAS mission was established once airfields within the bridgehead were established. There were no aircraft carriers off the coast of Normandy, thats what England was for.

Strategic bombers were used in the opening stages of the invasion especially on the American beaches but the bombing was largely ineffective as the bombs fell inland. The idea was that the bombs would provide instant foxholes but due to bomb creep completely missed the beaches.

I think any commemoration of D-Day is a good thing as the knowledge of what happened, within the general public, is woeful. There is a particular game show that I watch called Tipping Point where the general knowledge questions that relate to WW2 are invariably wrong. Questions such as "In what 20th Century conflict was the Battle of Britain?" "World War One" was the reply.
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