Posts made by Historyman

Yes, I remember reading that in Keegan’s The Second World War. If memory serves, Keegan wrote that the 21st Panzer had been sent on “one time wasting mission after another” and therefore did not threaten the early stages of the Brit and Canadian landings. On the D-day map the two German tanks at Caen and Troarn must represent the 21st Panzer and possibly the tank at Mezidon.

Actually, it was his wife, Lucie, who’s birthday fell on June 6th. Manfred’s birthday was on Christmas Eve. I beleive he would have been at la Roche Guyon otherwise. Rommel’s talent allowed him to use small units to seriously discomfit his opponents. I do not think that he could have personally crushed the invasion, but his presence behind several of the beaches could have stiffened organization and resistance considerably. His philosophy of “crush them on the beaches” would likely have caused him to push every available reserve forward. I have not studied the German deployment in Normandy with any detail. How accurate is the initial D-Day set-up?

How about Rommel heading to his wife’s birthday party? He didn’t get back until 10 p.m. on D-Day. Rommel had decided that the weather was too choppy for a landing.
This reminds me of the SAS motto: “Who dares, wins”