"it was considered certain that the invasion, when it came, would strike somewhere between Brittany and Calais"
It would be great to have more background on why this was so: it would seem that an equally valid landing spot would be on the Belgian coast between Dunkirk and Holland, where terrain is flat (rather than Normandy's hedgerows) and many Channel ports are available.
I understand the range of the Spitfire was a critical consideration as these were needed over the landing zones but the Dunkirk area is equally valid.
Also, my understanding was that the Germans understood they couldn't stop the landing but hoped to prevent the capture of any ports so that the Autumn gales on the English Channel would then hamper supplies and force the Allies to withdraw.
My mother is German, so I thought that I had some familiarity with German culture (I speak the language fluently).
Then I ran a German company for a couple of years.
Germans have an almost Byzantine love of bureaucracy and an addiction to org charts that hide the true flow of power. I could only learn the true power structure by being physically on the ground.
Connections outranked titles.
The Nazi regime was the epitome of this national trait.
Connections always matter, no matter where or who. What seems very German is the fetish of bureaucracy and org charts. In this case, they serve to hide what's really going on, even from, or especially from, those enmeshed in it.
"it was considered certain that the invasion, when it came, would strike somewhere between Brittany and Calais"
It would be great to have more background on why this was so: it would seem that an equally valid landing spot would be on the Belgian coast between Dunkirk and Holland, where terrain is flat (rather than Normandy's hedgerows) and many Channel ports are available.
I understand the range of the Spitfire was a critical consideration as these were needed over the landing zones but the Dunkirk area is equally valid.
Also, my understanding was that the Germans understood they couldn't stop the landing but hoped to prevent the capture of any ports so that the Autumn gales on the English Channel would then hamper supplies and force the Allies to withdraw.
My mother is German, so I thought that I had some familiarity with German culture (I speak the language fluently).
Then I ran a German company for a couple of years.
Germans have an almost Byzantine love of bureaucracy and an addiction to org charts that hide the true flow of power. I could only learn the true power structure by being physically on the ground.
Connections outranked titles.
The Nazi regime was the epitome of this national trait.
Connections always matter, no matter where or who. What seems very German is the fetish of bureaucracy and org charts. In this case, they serve to hide what's really going on, even from, or especially from, those enmeshed in it.
That it was.