Artee,Artee wrote: ↑16 Aug 2019, 08:39And this thread is still going... Mind you it seems to be heading towards a general discussion about the origins of WW2.
Sheldrake,
(1) Re post #250…SAA 989 was equipped with 12.2cm howitzers ie. SFH 396(r). Maximum range ~11.8km NOT 20km. That is, 2./989 had to move from Amblie on the morning of 06June. Unless of course the battery commander of 2./989 physically carried his shells towards Benouville!
(2) Re post #253… I agree with jpz4. SAA 989, for example, had more than one month to lay ~6000m of land-line to each of their respective OP’s.
(3) Post #265 I didn’t think it was particularly “lazy comment”. The list from Post #264 is garbage…
Artee
Thank you for the measured response.
RE 1. So 2./898 had to move on AM 6 June. They were probably out of action when the landings took place. Do you know where the battery moved to? Did they have any impact on the Orne Bridgehead battle? Are there mentions post D Day?
Re 2. The point at issue here is whether the Germans had dug in communications between their OPs and guns that survived shredding from the preliminary bombardment. I don't know how much line a German Artillery Abteilung had, but did it have enough to provide a ladder based system supporting six OPs across 15 km? A month might seem long enough to dig in wire if they had little else to do. (My back of an envelope calcyulation came up with 225 man months for 18 km of telephone wire dug in to 6 ft) But German units were tasked with providing labour for all the construction work on beach defences and Rommel asparagus for landing fields, and they had to maintain vehicles, undertake training. A further reason for my skepticism about dug in telephone communications is the absence of the evidence of diggings on aerial photographs.
I remain unpersuaded that 898th delivered effective defensive fire on Juno beach on D Day. Someone would have noticed 8 x 122mm guns firing DFs. There may have been spasmodic harassing fire, which is consistent with comms lost between OP and guns.
Re 3 My words were "lazy content." I agree with your view on the list in #264.