British troops wading ashore on Juno Beach with their bicycles, June 1944.
For 70 years the myths have lived on unchallenged. Myths about what went wrong on D-Day June 6, 1944 – the “surprise” storm, the air and naval bombardment that “missed”, the “surprise” quality of the defending German forces, and the “surprise” of the bocage fields.
The Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day June 6, 1944 is one of the most widely written about wartime assaults in history. It still is the most complex “amphibious” invasion in human history. It was the culmination of 4 years of planning by the Allied High Command. The sacrifice and bravery of the landing troops who were slaughtered in their thousands is remembered to this day with reverence, respect and sadness.
Yet, until now some very fundamental questions about the nature of the D-Day Combat Plan have remained buried and unchallenged. One of the most obvious of these questions is:
Why did this amphibious invasion fail to use the available amphibious armoured and armed vehicles and amphibious combat experience that could have changed the course of the invasion (and WW2 in Europe) and saved so many lives?
In this controversial book on D-Day, Temple Kehoe provides evidence that the D-Day invasion plan was an incompetent combat plan that failed to use the available amphibious invasion technology and experience that could have changed the course of WW2. The author shows how even as late as April 1944 this could have been changed. But instead, D-Day was saved by the bravery and resilience of the combat troops, so many of whom died unnecessarily on that day and the days that followed before World War 2 was finally won.