Opinions please (impact Allied fighter bombers on D-day)

[Klaus Schiffler]

The reference to the 2nd PzD and the 17th SS PzGrD are totally irrelevant to the situation regarding 6 June 1944. Your claim that the 2nd PzD moved 400 km in only two days is misleading. The true situation is that the division HQ did not receive the order to begin its march to the front until 9 June and that it was only the wheeled-sections of the division arrived at the front on 11 June and the trip from Amiens to Paris was by rail. From Paris to east of Caumont was by road. The armored fighting vehicles did not arrive until 12 June and the first combat by the division was on 13 June when the recon battalion (PzAA 2) met the enemy at la Vaquerie (3 Km west of Caumont). By then all hope of defeating the Normandy invasion was gone. (See Franz Josef Strauss Geschichte der 2. (Wiener) Panzer-Division).

The first units of the 17th SS PzGrD began their movement to the front on the morning of 7 June with orders to avoid the main roads and to take secondary roads and in an emergency to drive singly and the objective was St. Lo. The division was only partly motorized with the rest riding on bicycles. The first unit to depart was the PzAA 17. The first combat engagement was on 10 June with the 7th Armored Division (British). Again, by this time there was no hope of defeating the allied invasion. (See Hans Stöber, Die Sturmflut und das Ende: Geschichte der 17. SS-Panzergrenadierdivision "Götz von Berlichingen")