John Kettler Posted March 5, 2001 Share Posted March 5, 2001 Won't take n/t, apparently. Military Blunders is covering Panzer Deployment probs at D-day, such as waking Hitler, etc. Good footage! John Kettler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted March 5, 2001 Share Posted March 5, 2001 Yes, I saw the commercial for it this morning, but my father just doesn't buy the "failure to wake Hitler" theory. I mean com'on, you have several generals in Normandy watching the approaching ships and they are afraid to wake Hitler? Must've been some very loyal commanders to not have the guts to wake hitler from his beauty sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogue male Posted March 5, 2001 Share Posted March 5, 2001 Happened upon this post at 6:01 PT, and a show about the Texas Rangers is on. Checked TV Guide and Military Blunders is on a 9 PM in the Sacramento area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunnergoz Posted March 5, 2001 Share Posted March 5, 2001 Earlier this AM, I was reading Hans Von Luck's book Panzer Commander. He was C.O. of Pz Gr Rgt 125 of 21st Pz Div and he comments about how Hitler slept in because he worked into the wee hours. Clearly, the "toadies" in the Fuhrer's entourage didn't dare wake him early, invasion or no. One didn't want to mess with the Fuhrer, not if you wanted to keep your head. Meanwhile, the entire German chain of command is literally paralyzed while the invasion is getting hold of Norman soil. Hitler had them pretty well buffaloed, all right, primarily by implementing a command system that maximized his control and minimized the influence of the generals, whom he deeply mistrusted. It's not theory or myth, it was the reality of living in a tyrannical regime where your life could be forfeit based upon on one man's whim or mood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmaker Posted March 5, 2001 Share Posted March 5, 2001 Also, Hitler has been on some medication too and was by this time of the war, a tid bit too easy to "irritate." You didn't pi$$ him off if you wanted to stay out of the Russian Front I guess. But it must've been frustrating to the Western Front commanders to not be able to use their armored reserves at the crucial time. And speaking of the German armored reserves prior to D-Day, I've seen maps of their deployments. "Steel Inferno" even went into some of it. Most of the Western leaders wanted to keep the Panzers far inland to protect them from preliminary shore bombardments. But on the other side of the coin Field Marshall Rommel wanted to keep the Panzer Divisions up close to immediately counter attack, barrage or no barrage. Of course most of the leadership didn't like that idea. Result? Panzers released much to late(out of Rundstedt's hands on this). When they finally started moving, they had to resort to time & fuel consuming road marches since the rail lines were a certain invitation to death. On those long road marches to Normandy, Allied airpower made daytime movement a nightmare. I believe partisan activities slowed some units also. Panzers were being destroyed and ran out of fuel even BEFORE getting to the front. I know there's too many factors to keep in mind but a good "what if" scenario is if Rommel did get his way with the Panzer reserves. Even though he wasn't overall commander of the West, didn't he still fall in decent standing with Hitler at this time? This was before the bombing attempt. ------------------ "Uncommon valor was a common virtue"-Adm.Chester Nimitz of the Marines on Iwo Jima Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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