The Amphibious Landings

Abstract

One of the essential aspects of a crisis is its unanticipated nature, and the shock to the Germans of the armada’s sudden appearance was colossal, for the sheer size and scale of the operation seemed overwhelming. ‘There were so many vessels’, recalled Sergeant Richard Heklotz of the German 110th Field Artillery, ‘so many ships, that there was nowhere on the horizon that you could look and not see some type of vessel’.¹ But as Omaha Beach was to prove, surprise and materiel were necessary but not sufficient to secure the landings; that required Command too.