The reason why the bombers missed their targets is so simple its stupid.
The Eighth Air Force was requested to fly along the coast, dropping their bomb loads, if the bombers missed their primary targets, the bombs would still hit the beach, creating craters that could be used for cover and still have a good chance of damaging obstacles and rattling the beach defenders.
Eighth Air Force decided WITHOUT CONSULTING ANYONE ELSE that this would involve too high a risk to the troops, they made the decision to fly over the beaches and delay 1-2 seconds in order to hit their targets. The bombadiers, afraid of hitting the ships in the Channel, delayed a further 2-3 seconds. Talk about missing the target by a country mile!
After action reports with the ground troops cited the medium bombers of the Ninth Air Force with providing better and closer support.
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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