OT; The Longest Day

[pmulcahy11b]

Off the thread topic here, but we used to discuss the D-Day landing a lot in ROTC. We came up with this for a modern attack on the same area and type of positions:

1) A preparatory bombardment with Lance missiles (still in service at the time), cruise missiles (by Tomahawks and the then-new CALCMs), and attack aircraft armed with mostly iron bombs and laser and TV-guided missiles, and some smart bombs (smart bombs weren't as common in the early 1980s as they are now), and possibly heavier bombardment with B-52s and B-1s.

2) A combined amphibious assault by Marines and an air assault with helicopters.

3) Limited conventional airborne drops on key enemy positions. Airborne operations, even in the early 1980s, weren't necessarily the mess that they were in the 1940s.

4) Heavy use of special operations, as early as a week or possibly more before the actual D-Day assault. Possibly as much as six months before, some special ops units would be scoping out the opposition and aiding resistance forces.

5) Heavy use of air cover, especially by helicopters and aircraft such as the A-10, during the D-Day assault.

Of course, the German positions would be protected by a big SAM umbrella, mobile AAA, and they would be armed with a lot of shoulder-fired rockets and ATGM, as well as land-fired antiship missiles...we assumed for the scenario that there was still a stupid Hitler-type who refused to release most of his armored forces until it was too late. We also assumed for the scenario that as with the actual D-Day, only two German aircraft got off and attacked the beach, but they would be armed with a cannon pod each and cluster bombs. Allied casualties might have been so severe that this version of D-Day might have been repulsed.