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Re: USS MEREDITH (DD 726)
Posted by:
Eric
()
Date: August 26, 2004 03:13PM
All,
Since we are talking about theories, the type of mine could be clue to the massive amount of damage (almost broke a DD in half).
This reminds me of the recent story on the US/Canadian History channel TV series, Deep Sea Detectives, where the the Minesweeper YMS-304 was destroyed in minutes(on D-Day) by a large acoustic mine. Has this been investigated at all?
As far as the glide bomb, the Germans had successfully used these up to that that point. Considering the massive attrition of the Luftwaffe in France leading up to the invasion (lost thousands of skilled pilots/aircraft)and the massive numerical advantage the allies had in fighters and bombers (820 vs. 6,029), the glide bomb would have been a good way to skirt the aircover and fire into the "box". Did the writer who mentioned this give any indication why he chose to use the term glide bomb?
Much had been made of the fact that the Luftwaffe only managed to fly two sorties on D-Day (fighters making high speed low level straffing runs)but you don't hear much about thier efforts in the days immediatly after.
I haven't found any refernces to glide bombs being used at Normandy, but then again, I haven't found any references to 'conventional' bombs being used either.
As a side note, the Captain seems to indicate that German e-boats were encountered by the invasion fleet on thier way over, but the impression I always had was that the German defender's first clue that it was going to be a bad day was when the armada appeared out of the eary morning mist. Any thoughts?
Eric
Since we are talking about theories, the type of mine could be clue to the massive amount of damage (almost broke a DD in half).
This reminds me of the recent story on the US/Canadian History channel TV series, Deep Sea Detectives, where the the Minesweeper YMS-304 was destroyed in minutes(on D-Day) by a large acoustic mine. Has this been investigated at all?
As far as the glide bomb, the Germans had successfully used these up to that that point. Considering the massive attrition of the Luftwaffe in France leading up to the invasion (lost thousands of skilled pilots/aircraft)and the massive numerical advantage the allies had in fighters and bombers (820 vs. 6,029), the glide bomb would have been a good way to skirt the aircover and fire into the "box". Did the writer who mentioned this give any indication why he chose to use the term glide bomb?
Much had been made of the fact that the Luftwaffe only managed to fly two sorties on D-Day (fighters making high speed low level straffing runs)but you don't hear much about thier efforts in the days immediatly after.
I haven't found any refernces to glide bombs being used at Normandy, but then again, I haven't found any references to 'conventional' bombs being used either.
As a side note, the Captain seems to indicate that German e-boats were encountered by the invasion fleet on thier way over, but the impression I always had was that the German defender's first clue that it was going to be a bad day was when the armada appeared out of the eary morning mist. Any thoughts?
Eric