D-Day events in the past week reminded Grumpy Editor of the excellent, well documented writing by David Eisenhower, the grandson and namesake of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower with “Eisenhower at War 1943-1945,” originally published December, 1986.
Its 977 pages, a masterful work that reshapes thinking about World War II in Europe, was nominated for Pulitzer Prize for History.
Along with media keeping mum --- something that would never happen these days --- on the planned landings on the beaches of France, the other major element was the weather, most important on an English Channel crossing, and how word from the Allies' meteorologists made the June 6 invasion a “go.”
The book pointed out that “on the strength of a weather forecast (Gen. Eisenhower) decided to launch the invasion on the sixth (of June) instead of postponing it until the nineteenth without having to clear that decision with higher authority,” adding “it was “one of the truly great decisions in military history.”
Adverse weather would have curtailed close support of gunships and aircraft.
The Germans, who expected bad weather conditions for an invasion, were victims of faulty intelligence.
The Luftwaffe was in charge of predicting weather patterns and did not detect the break in the weather charted by the Allies. The Germans predicted unsettled weather would force at least a two-week delay on any Allied activity toward France.
Allies' daily weather analysis, as pointed out in the book, was prepared by a group headed by meteorologist Group Captain Dr. John Stagg, on loan to the Royal Air Force, along with American-British experts drawn from various U.S. and British military sections.
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