Most Distinguished Medal by Country

I was reading this document (https://history.army.mil/html/books/104/104-20/CMH_Pub_104-20.pdf) which counted the Panzer 1 as a tankette. Do any of you think this is a better description for the vehicle than a light tank? It’s not much heavier than some Japanese tankettes and its armament and crew size is certainly similar.

This is the first time I’ve heard of classifying the vehicle as a tankette, which is why I find it noteworthy.

@Coldwarrior1984

Reading this, I feel strongly you’re confused about the nature of the German defenses in Normandy. In combination, I feel you are overestimating the Allies ability to place smoke as precisely and in the quantity that would have been required to have a chance to accomplish the goal you lay out. I also feel you’re overestimating the effectiveness of smoke even if I grant that none of the above was an issue.

I’ve been to Normandy three times with tour guides. I’ve read everything from Ambrose and Osprey on Overlord. I’m tempted to repeat my initial post about why you don’t hear or see this tactic being performed en masse in the many assaults in the Pacific or Mediterranean.

I’ll just sum this up and say that the German fighting positions were not composed primarily of Saving Private Ryan style bunkers but widerstandsnest with Tobruks across so much acreage that a simultaneous precision smoke affect against all of them for the required time to get everyone ashore is less realistic that just a mass smoke bombardment of the beach area.

@Witt

Thank you so much! I appreciate your input.

@ABWorsham4

Curious. Would’ve been a complicated air operation, given that escorting aircraft may have had to come from carriers. Then again, the Western Allies ruled the skies.

The success would’ve depended on whether the Italian government collapsed (Mussolini and the facists overthrown) and the army would’ve defected as quickly and massive as they did following the invasion of Sicily. If a substantial number were at least disarmed, it’s quite possible enough Allied troops could’ve been ferried into Italian ports to hold against an expected German counterattack.

While I don’t think the Allies would’ve reached the Italian-Yugoslavian or Italian-German borders, they may have reached what would become the Gothic Line by early 1944. Just making probable estimates, I did not look this in detail.

The US ‘Ghost Army’ was a unit specialized in deception: by building and operating mockups, they gave the Germans the impression of being a large army, drawing the enemy’s attention away from actual operations. They famously participated in Operation Fortitude in 1944, aimed at leading the Germans to believe that the allied invasion would occur somewhere else than it actually did. Later, they transferred to mainland Europe and continued to mislead the enemy.

Surviving veterans have now finally received their well-earned decorations.

@Dylan:

Okay say the German defense in Norway did go to fight Russia or something, do you think the Allies might then attack Norway?

Unlikely imo, although if Germany left Norway totally empty, I think Norway would be secured by some british forces (along with our very few Norwegian soldiers), but if we look at the map, choosing Norway instead of France would mean that the allied forces had to be shipped onboard the ships again and then sail to Denmark, or Northern Germany, or France for an invasion.
Stalin said no foreign soldiers on Russian soil, so the hypothetical invasion force (for Norway) could not move from northern Norway to Northern Russia, south to balticum, and then to Germany. It was definitely most practical to invade France and then move east to Germany.
It would even be better to just send all allied troops to Italy and moving upwards towards Germany instead of invading Norway.
And the Germans treated us “fairly” good, taking the war situation into consideration, I think less than 3000 Norwegians were killed during the war, and that is not so bad if you look at some other countries which were not so lucky, so there was no immediate need to liberate Norway for the intention of saving our civilian population.

The war many had feared erupts as German troops move into, at first, Holland and Belgium lead by air suport and airborn attacks.