The fight over the seafront village of Le Hamel, on the western edge of Gold Beach, 6 June 1944. See videos early with RU-vid membership: / @usuallyhapless9481 Or even earlier over on Patreon: / usuallyhaplessvideos
The amount of specialised equipment and indirect support brought to the beaches by the Allied forces really emphasises how vast their industrial capacity was in comparison to the Axis' by this point in the war. Fantastic video as always.
I read James Holland's 'Brothers in Arms' and 'An Englishmen at War' at some point last year. It's really cool to see the day's event's in the area all tied together coherently after getting only the limited perspective of the Sherwood Rangers. Great work!
7:00 brief note, many Royal Navy ship classes share a name starting with the same letter, hence the U class destroyers all have a name that starts with U.
Great video! These detailed insights into the tactical situation in less-discussed battles are much appreciated. With summer coming into full swing, maybe a video on something in France 1940? Too few discuss tactical details in favor of hand waiving away an embarrassing strategic defeat.
To be fair, at Salerno, their biggest mistake was to continue despite the German air attacks on their way there. General Clarck should have realized that Kesselring was wel aware of his movements. And despite only one armoured division being close enough to counter them, more reinforcements were quickly send, culminating in the counterattack that almost spelled the doom of the entire battle. Rather than outmanouvering the Germans, he had to be rescued by Monty. Yes, 21st panzer was close enough to launch a counterattack at the beachhead, but it was up against a MUCH larger force than at Salerno. Anyway, this engagement at Gold also shows how well the Germans had set up their defense with their limited resources. A 15-16'' gun might have put that bunker out of action, but that's danger close. Plus, those guns really don't have the accuracy to reliably hit something that small. Ultimately, the Allies were only able to overcome it thanks to their massive advantage in raw firepower, all of which could be coördinated much more easily. Can't wait for the next episode. Keep up the excellent work. :)
I think continuing on towards Salerno after being rumbled is one of those things that isn't actually that likely to alter proceedings. A bit like if the Germans had spotted the D-Day invasion fleet at midnight: it's too big to stop, but definitely big enough to bully its way onto the beach without the element of surprise.
I wonder how much different things would have been had the attack force been more spread out as was originally intended, too. While I imagine another enfiladed artillery piece (WN38) was positioned to provide supporting/cover fire to WN37, I wonder if moving armour and troops up on its blind spot would have allowed it to be silenced much quicker. Throughout this video I kept thinking how much war has been changed not just by technology, but also by the improvement of overall communication, and reliability of mechanical equipment has become since the 40s.
It's a stereoscopic rangefinder. The photo is at a bad angle. The periscope isn't one vision block, but 2 legs in a V-shape, projecting 2 very slightly different images to a lens at the bottom. Adjusting that lens until the two images are identical tells you the range to the target in focus.
Great video mate, interesting to see how effective a single AT gun was. D-day will forever be such an interesting topic, I feel for the poor defenders at the beach.
