Why would you send it by Landing Craft?

In other words, the battleships were so cowardly that they would have let the landing troops go without fire support…

I don’t think anybody, least of all me, was accusing anybody of cowardice.

Sorry, don’t follow your logic. Costal artillery not knocked out was the fault of the RAF but costal-artillery silenced was thanks to the Royal Navy?

My original (rather flippant) comment echoed something that Don Bennett wrote about some of the deployments of his Pathfinder Squadrons on D-Day (I’ll find the quote).

Inter-service criticism seems to be common to all armed forces (and all nations) and I’m sure that there was plenty on D-Day, the greatest combined-operation of them all, but in terms of tonnage of ordnance dropped, and number of targets destroyed in support of the landings I’m sure the RAF would win hands-down. And no disrespect is intended to any of the forces that took part, Army, Navy or Air Force; D-Day couldn’t have happened without any of them.

As I had never read anything that Don Bennett wrote, I had no way of knowing you weren’t serious… I have read more outrageous claims made in complete seriousness.

It appeared that you were claiming that “RAF heavy bombers had knocked-out the costal artillery so that the battleships could approach the coast”.

In other words, the battleships were so cowardly that they would have let the landing troops go without fire support if the coastal artillery was still functional… but the RAF had silenced the coastal artillery, so it was OK.

Neither of which were true.

I have no doubt that the RAF (and the American Army Air Force) did reduce the German artillery (both before & during the invasion), but there was still plenty left functional… which the battleships (and other ships) DID close with and engage from surprisingly close range.

And the Royal Navy was only part of the heavy Naval fire-support during the invasion… although the largest by far in the light Naval fire-support (light cruiser & below) (6″ & smaller guns) categories.

RN:
battleships Rodney, Warspite & Ramillies;
15-inch gun monitor Roberts;
heavy cruisers Frobisher, Hawkins;
light cruisers Argonaut, Ajax, Arethusa, Belfast, Bellona, Black Prince, Capetown, Ceres, Danae, Diadem, Emerald, Enterprise, Glasgow, Mauritius, Orion, Scylla;
plus destroyers

USN:
battleships Arkansas, Nevada, Texas;
heavy cruisers Augusta, Quincy, Tuscaloosa;
plus destroyers

Free French: light cruisers Georges Leygues, Montcalm

Polish: light cruiser ORP Dragon (ex-HMS);
plus destroyers

Canadian: destroyers

Norwegian: destroyers

http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-allied-warships-in-the-normandy-landings

Tell that to the many who fell victim to the many coastal artillery pieces NOT “knocked out by the RAF heavy bombers”!

Those battleships (and cruisers, and destroyers) were just fine closing and engaging those batteries at rather close quarters… would that the RAF had pressed their attacks as closely before the landings began.

Sorry, don’t follow your logic. Costal artillery not knocked out was the fault of the RAF but costal-artillery silenced was thanks to the Royal Navy?

My original (rather flippant) comment echoed something that Don Bennett wrote about some of the deployments of his Pathfinder Squadrons on D-Day (I’ll find the quote).

Inter-service criticism seems to be common to all armed forces (and all nations) and I’m sure that there was plenty on D-Day, the greatest combined-operation of them all, but in terms of tonnage of ordnance dropped, and number of targets destroyed in support of the landings I’m sure the RAF would win hands-down. And no disrespect is intended to any of the forces that took part, Army, Navy or Air Force; D-Day couldn’t have happened without any of them.

I thought that a lot of the spotting for Naval bombardment during the landings was carried out by the Mustangs of the TAF (No 2 Sqn?)

Is that after the RAF heavy bombers had knocked-out the costal artillery so that the battleships could approach the coast? :diablo:

Like you say…..it’s the size of your back-up that counts! 😉

Tell that to the many who fell victim to the many coastal artillery pieces NOT “knocked out by the RAF heavy bombers”!

Those battleships (and cruisers, and destroyers) were just fine closing and engaging those batteries at rather close quarters… would that the RAF had pressed their attacks as closely before the landings began.

Soon after D-Day, there were mass flights of a dozen or so L-4s across to Normandy, accompanied by a Walrus in case of a mishap.

…an Auster used to spot for the fall of shot for a couple of Battleships, around the D Day period.

Is that after the RAF heavy bombers had knocked-out the costal artillery so that the battleships could approach the coast? :diablo:

Like you say…..it’s the size of your back-up that counts! 😉

I think it was during the battles around Calais in 1944 when an Auster had control of the biggest amount of Artillary to date, and earned its place as being the most heavily armed aircraft of WW2.

A minor diversion:

I recall reading somewhere that the heaviest fire directed from an aircraft…

…was from an Auster used to spot for the fall of shot for a couple of Battleships, around the D Day period.

It’s not how big you are, it’s the size of your backup! 😀

Beat me to it with a photo, but here is another waiting to be loaded onto an LST.

You mean something like this?

Sorry to drag this thread up but i thought this might be interesting and drag up more questions than it answers…..left hand side of the pic roughly in the middle 🙂 L-4 or similar on the back of a truck presumably just before or just after d-day

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18532986@N07/2991109142/sizes/l/in/set-72157608531954397/

I’d say more than a tad interesting, more likely to have led to brown underwear.

Passing heavy artillery shells of the 16inch naval variety evidently caused a fair degree of interesting turbulence for Spitfire and Mustang drivers apparently. The effect might have been a tad interesting in an L4 !

If the gale force winds were southerly (30kts+) the head wind would have slowed them up a bit, there probably was a weather cut off point where all light a/c would have been grounded, so it would make sense to split them into two separate units. The moment the wind abated you could launch from the beach-head without trying to contact England and wait hours for one to turn up.

I can’t help but giggle at the thought of ‘safety’ of an L4 driver being high on the priorities that particular day.

I disagree, this shows how important they were by the virtue of being on these LCTs.

For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost………………………

Naval bombardment spotting was vital in the first few days.

just my thoughts
Baz

Many of the L4 were flown England to Normandy on the invasion with extra fuel tanks in the cabin. Many others went in landing -craft and were wheeled ashore. As far as i am aware those stacked sideways on landing craft and flown off the short platform after addition of the rudder were in the Italy invasion.
The ‘Brodie’ arrestor wire/system was for use in Pacific!

Yes, exactly my thoughts, the Royal Navy seems to have had a policy of ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ when it came to aircraft identification…..I think I’d go by boat! 😀

Possibly the intention was to operate this aircraft from the beach at low tide…

…after a strip had been cleared of anti-landing-craft obstacles and mines! 😉

Would it have the range? A bit vulnerable over a long stretch of water?
6,000 USofA/Navy AA guns?

Baz

Especially with the Navy’s habit of shooting at anything that flies and asking whether it’s ours or theirs afterwards.

I can’t help but giggle at the thought of ‘safety’ of an L4 diver being high on the priorities that particular day.

But possible I suppose.

Moggy

Also, if you remember Moggy, gale force winds,rain,hail and low cloud

baz

I can’t help but giggle at the thought of ‘safety’ of an L4 driver being high on the priorities that particular day.

But possible I suppose.

Moggy