Why didn't the Allies attack literally anywhere else but Normandy or Calais?
Everywhere else had minimal fortifications. Even if surprise was lost attacking the western coast of France, it would take awhile to bring in anything more than the immediate reserves.
Was getting paratroopers there the primary limitation?
Because the range from south of England to France is the shortest I think and best suitable for an invasion.
Boats have long range though.
It would have been infinitely easier from a logistics perspective, and the masterful deception tactics used in the leadup to the landings negated much of the advantage the Germans had in terms of fortifications.
Because going where the defence was strongest succesfully tricked the Germans. They didn't expect them to do it and made multiple feinting attacks, like the landing attempt in Western France that was doomed to fail from the start, dropping dummies from airplanes to make the Germans think it's a paratrooper invasion.
It worked, didn't it?
>Because going where the defence was strongest successfully tricked the Germans.
Hitler was sure the attack would come at Calais, which was the strongest fortification from the start.
Yeah but remember they also have to ship a shitton of tanks, jeeps and other logistics, D-Day by itself was a logistic nightmare, imagine doing anything larger than the channel
First: supply range, you want close distance for your supply boats
Second: your supplies need to arrive intact, undamage; meaning you need aircover, the closer to your own airfields the better, so that fighters can keep the skies clear from enemy bombers
Third: massive harbour for massive amounts of military gear. Candidates in France being Toulon, Marseille, Le Havre, Brest, Bordeaux. Calais, Boulogne, Nantes, Cherbourg (+Antwerpen + Rotterdam)
Germans knew this, which is why they had extensive defences for each major port, including plans for destroying them, filling them with mines, or simply creating massive forts to guard the harbour entrances. Several of those forts held out until the war ended, denying many harbours to allies.
Allies managed to capture Cherbourg somewhat intact, Le Havre was quite damaged, and Toulon in the south did not help northern armies much.
tldr: logistics + aircover from nearby bases
north sea has shitty weather and scandi coast is far away, low countries are closer to german air and sub bases than france, south of france was invaded, west of france is far away, so what "literally anywhere else" is left but the north of france?
i have this vague notion of them (or the british alone?) considering brittany but discarding it fearing a difficult breakthrough - but don't quote me on that, it might have very well been a scenario in TOAW or something like that!
>literally no defences on the German coast
Explain this to me, Veeky Forums.
Good luck with all those U-BOOTS coming out of german ports.
>MG and artillery emplacements manned by literal U-boats
I smirked.
ports of Brest, Nantes, Lorient and Bordeaux had so tough forts, they lasted to the end of the war 1000km behind actual frontlines.
basically denying allies all ports in western coast of France.
Landing in Bretagne would have been useless if the local troops could not have been supplied afterwards.
Meanwhile Normandy had both Cherbourg and Le Havre near. The shape of the Normandy coastline itself allowed them to surround Cherbourg fast and they managed to capture it somewhat intact.
keep in mind that the Allies could have basically puked out thousands of soldiers to any part of French coast; but then could only have supported a new front only by having a large harbour to their use. It's always about logistics.
Sledgehammer, an abandoned operation to land in 1942, was planned to land in Brittany. Yes, it was feared that breaking out would be difficult, but conversely, that it would be harder for the Germans to counterattack and knock them back into the sea, a much bigger risk in 1942 than in 1944. With the strategic situation improving, a more aggressive posture was taken.
Ehh, it was more that those ports were behind the lines and weren't worth the trouble of securing, especially since they didn't give a closer shipping point once the troops were in Normandy. If they had gone the Sledgehammer route, they'd have taken Brest and Lorient. If they had landed in the south for some bizarre reason, they'd have taken Bordeaux, which was hardly an invincible fortress; the fucking French resistance kept it bottled up post landing.
They had to construct a gigantic resupplying platform in the sea just to get everything across the French channel, imagine trying to reach Spain or Germany.
>Ehh, it was more that those ports were behind the lines and weren't worth the trouble of securing
That reminds me, the Channel Islands were never liberated by force and the Germans there only capitulated when the war ended. They simply weren't strategic enough to risk lives and resources on.
To get there you would have to travel through a narrow sea controlled on both sides by the Germans while getting stretched out lines of supply.
Bordeaux may have been possible, but others not so. And it was far from air cover.
Not to mention Uboot dens in Bretagne that would be harassing their shipping nonstop.
most important factor is time.
the allies did trick the germans with false information indicating the attack is directed towards Calais, but it would only take a few hours to a day before German Command realized this was false. so they needed a target they could get to quickly as to keep German attention elsewhere.
second is distance. the invasion fleet across the channel was massive, with thousands of ships gathered for the invasion effort. Having to swing that entire fleet around to the south of France or across the North Sea to Denmark would've been easy for German U-boats/planes to spot and raise the alarm at the fleet's location.
finally, the invasion of Normandy was an immense success for all their planning, 5 out of the 6 beach heads were taken with minimal resistance, with only Omaha putting up a formidable resistance and turning into the legendary story we've all heard.
>Channel islands never liberated till after the war
Seriously? Didn't they only take over Jersey and the French ones though?
They took over the Channel Islands. That's like, a name. Not "some islands in a channel". But "the" Channel Islands.
And yup. Why bother with an invasion? The Germans literally couldn't do anything. Except starve and wait and and run their little concentration camps, the fuckers.
Nothing narrow about the sea between Denmark and the Netherlands. It's obtuse.