Biggest D-Day blunder

[Imperious Leader]

Thats correct but the thread is about 1944 d-day blunders.

1. hitler didnt release the panzer reserve
2. hitler felt the invasion was a decoy for the real invasion at Pas- De Calais
3. Rommel was not allowed to make decisions that would have defeated the allies. this process starts upon his appointment to the CC of OB west
4. The Todd organization was responsible for creating the obstructions and never completed its task as its limited resources were used in other areas.
5. The Germans treated the French too well. It should have been more draconian rule upon them. This allowed too many opportunities for French underground to obtain mapping and positional information on german deployments.
6. Many german commanders left for the Rennes “wargames” on the 5th of June and were not at their post when the attack came. The practice was not scheduled untill the 6th, but many unit commanders left early evening… the day before.
7. The luftwaffe was basically decimated and should have been withdrawn from coastal airfields in anticipation of saturation bombing by the allies. It was done too late after too many loses.

[frimmel]

I would suggest that even before D-Day the failure to have any intelligence on what the Allies were doing aside from what the OSS fed them was a blunder even before the first shot was fired. My understanding is the Germans never had an effective spy in England over the entire course of the war.
I wish I could remember where I read that.

[Imperious Leader]

probably “bodyguard of lies”

[squirecam]

@yamamato456:

Well actually the battle of britain itself was not necassarily a German mistake.  The way the battle of britain was fought was a mistake.  In the beginning of the battle the Germans were smart to only target the British airforce.  However, the air battle was lasting longer than Hitler wanted… so he decided he would bomb London instead.  All of the german generals thought this was a huge mistake and wanted to keep attacking the airforce.  In fact on the day that they started targetting london there were only 14 operational planes in the whole UK.  If the German generals would have had their way the Germans would have won the battle of britain.

Even assuming Germany “wins” the air war, they never win the battle of Britain. Britain never gets successfully invaded, Germany just doesnt have the operational power to do so.

The mistake was in attacking Britain, rather than the Med. Taking Egypt (and gaining access to Iran/Iraq oil) and depriving UK of supplies was the only way to “win” (which eventually would not have worked as the USA would eventually enter the war and supply Britain with whatever was needed).

Had the med been conquered and become an axis lake, you could delay Torch till 44. Perhaps egypt is never retaken until 45. Which would give Germany time to mass produce its "super-weapons). This also assumes the blunders on the eastern front are also ignored.

Squirecam