Attack
vs Defense
There
are four basic reasons why German defences
in Normandy were able to hold out as long
as they did.
First,
it is much more difficult to attack successfully
then to defend stubbornly. The Allies
were not in Normandy just to hold on;
they were there to attack and keep on
attacking until the Germans were destroyed
or driven from the battlefield. The Germans
could 'win' just by holding out. The few
times the Germans did manage to launch
a major attack, their losses where as
high as the Allies incured during their
attacks.
Second,
much of the German equipment was better
than that of the Allies. Although the
bulk of the German tanks in Normandy were
the older Mark IV's, a match for the Sherman
medium tank, the Sherman was no match
for the newer and much heavier armoured
and better gunned Panthers and Tigers.
The Sherman was easily destroyed by the
88 and 75 millimetre anti-tank guns. The
British had engineered a solution to the
Sherman's inability to kill the new German
tanks. Called Firefly, it combined the
effective British high-velocity 17 pounder
anti-tank gun with the Sherman in a modified
turret. There were however never enough
Firefly's to go around.
Third,
German small-unit tactics, and the training
in those tactics given to their ranks,
their NCO's, and their junior officers,
were superb, and better than the small-unit
tactics and training of the Allies. The
excellence of the German army did not
reside either in the quality or quantity
of its equipment. It has never believed
that technology was the way to victory,
even though it readily incorporated new
weaponry and equipment into its arsenal.
It believed that weapons are no more effective
than those who use them. It was on the
training and motivation of its users that
it concentrated. It especially concentrated
on instilling in its conscripts the warrior
spirit.
Finally,
though lacking air cover, the Germans
took full advantage of the stone walled
villages, narrow roads, thick hedgerows,
tall wheat, and other terrain features
when they laid out their defences.
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