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Old 06-15-2011, 06:06 AM
dragoon500ly dragoon500ly is offline
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By June 6, the Luftwaffe had been shattered by Allied airpower, losses were so high that the decision had been made to consolidate its remaining strength to defend the Reich. Daylight operation was limited to attacking the daily bombing runs of the 8th Air Force.

During D-Day two and only two Fw-190s made an attack on the British beaches. According to reports the two pilots hedge-hopped, made a single strafing run destroying (reports vary) from 3-9 trucks and then fled the beach area.

Luftwaffe operations against the beaches took the form of night-time harrasement raids conducted by Ju-88s. Several ships were damaged with at least three being sunk. Extremely heavy Allied flak as well as night fighters were credited with preventing more intense attacks, that as well as murderous low-level fighter sweeps on any German airfield within range of Normandy.

The Kriegsmarine also provided a dismal performance on D-Day, an early morning sweep by S-Boats (torpedo boats) resulted in the sinking of a Norwegian destroyer. U-Boats made several attacks in the weeks following, but intensive ASW efforts kept them from any major success during the critical build-up period. They were able to sink some cargo ships and one transport.

Compared to the heavy resistance put up by the Heer, the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine's efforts were simply too little, too late.
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