Re: They also wrote one about Dieppe
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Posted by Brad Sallows from Burnaby BC Canada on April 23, 2021 at 20:39:29:
In Reply to: They also wrote one about Dieppe posted by Michael A. Dorosh on April 23, 2021 at 19:45:25:
I haven't read the book, hence I only intended to make two general
points: judging commanders and their decisions armed with all the
hindsight history can bring to bear is unfair ground from which to
criticize, and attempting to build a case for "if A then B" is
pointless if the time between A (cause) and B (effect) allows for
a lot of variation in enemy reaction.
Some people argue that Dieppe was invaluable for lessons learned;
others think it was wasteful. I believe the former are
overwhelmingly correct. The US was pushing for a mainland European
invasion in 1942; Dieppe settled the debate. Much was learned about
the required weight of naval and air support, not to mention
amphibious transport capability. It was known a port would be
required early to logistically support an invasion; it was learned
that an indirect approach would be preferable to a direct one. The
inexperienced US forces benefited from a more gradual introduction
to the European conflict via North Africa. Sicily and Anzio had
problems and some additional lessons were learned, particularly
about the employment of airborne forces in support of amphibious
operations (Sicily) and the need to risk offensive action very soon
after landing while the enemy was off balance (Anzio). Also, the
Italian defenses in Sicily were considerably softer than the Germans
in Normandy and allowed the Allies to blood some divisions in
amphibious operations with relatively few casualties. Thus, by the
time they were planning for Normandy, they had a good handle on what
was required and came up with some very creative solutions to
problems. D-Day saw the Allies throwing everything they could muster
after months of planning at the shoreline, and it was still a near-run
thing at Omaha. One can easily argue that every prior amphibious
operation made a contribution to the success of Neptune, and Dieppe
led the way for all of them.
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