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The US unit with the most experience in amphibious assaults in WW2 was in Europe: between Operations Hammer, Menace, Appearance, Ironclad, Jubilee, Torch, Husky

The US unit with the most experience in amphibious assaults in WW2 was in Europe: between Operations Hammer, Menace, Appearance, Ironclad, Jubilee, Torch, Husky, Avalanche, Accolade and Shingle by the time that Overlord came around there was an enormous amount of accumulated experience in how to do amphibious assaults without need to consult the people in the PTO. The US Army borrowed a pre-war manual from the Marine Corps, but that was about the extent of it. As for the value of attrition, it seems to me it was the Germans who chose attritional warfare not the Allies. They fought a largely attritional battle, then ran like hell the moment it turned to maneuver.

worik 5y ago
My father spent a chunk of the war in the Pacific with the New Zealand forces. The Americans had a pattern: bombardment, storm beaches, fight fight fight.... The New Zealand forces used this to their advantage. When they had to take an Island they would row ashore in the night with some howitzers, sneak up the beech. They knew where their enemy camped, relative to the beech, where they were waiting for teh naval bombardment to start, then stop, whence they planned to go down to the beech and machine gun the American troops coming ashore. The New Zealand forces would already be ashore, dug in, and wake their enemy up with howitzers from the shore based dug in positions. All his life he had a contempt for American culture based on that experience. "They depend so much on technology" he would say. Yes. They (the Americans) had a lot of experience. But they were not the best.
- arrow7000 5y ago
  The NZ troops gunned down the American forces? What war are you talking about?
  - mortehu 5y ago
    The Americans trained the enemy to respond in a certain way, and NZ took advantage of the enemy's predictable response.
lostlogin 5y ago
> Overlord came around there was an enormous amount of accumulated experience in how to do amphibious assaults without need to consult the people in the PTO. The failure to take armour has been blamed as a cause of the huge casualties the US took. However the weather was terrible, so it might have exacerbated the problem.
Taniwha 5y ago
Yes it's worth remembering that by the time D-Day happened the Allies had already invaded Europe (twice really: Sicily and then Italy proper) and were slogging their way northward, dragging key German divisions away from the Eastern front and France Having fought across North Africa and then just fought thru Monte Casino my dad, also a kiwi, at least once noted that those d-day guys were "johnny come latelies" :-)

worik 5y ago

My father spent a chunk of the war in the Pacific with the New Zealand forces. The Americans had a pattern: bombardment, storm beaches, fight fight fight.... The New Zealand forces used this to their advantage. When they had to take an Island they would row ashore in the night with some howitzers, sneak up the beech. They knew where their enemy camped, relative to the beech, where they were waiting for teh naval bombardment to start, then stop, whence they planned to go down to the beech and machine gun the American troops coming ashore. The New Zealand forces would already be ashore, dug in, and wake their enemy up with howitzers from the shore based dug in positions. All his life he had a contempt for American culture based on that experience. "They depend so much on technology" he would say. Yes. They (the Americans) had a lot of experience. But they were not the best.

arrow7000 5y ago
The NZ troops gunned down the American forces? What war are you talking about?
- mortehu 5y ago
  The Americans trained the enemy to respond in a certain way, and NZ took advantage of the enemy's predictable response.

lostlogin 5y ago

> Overlord came around there was an enormous amount of accumulated experience in how to do amphibious assaults without need to consult the people in the PTO. The failure to take armour has been blamed as a cause of the huge casualties the US took. However the weather was terrible, so it might have exacerbated the problem.

Taniwha 5y ago

Yes it's worth remembering that by the time D-Day happened the Allies had already invaded Europe (twice really: Sicily and then Italy proper) and were slogging their way northward, dragging key German divisions away from the Eastern front and France Having fought across North Africa and then just fought thru Monte Casino my dad, also a kiwi, at least once noted that those d-day guys were "johnny come latelies" :-)