Govern the way that we allow resources to be used in our economy today. Clemson University Professor and former chief economist at the fcc talks about his book, the political spectrum, which looks at the history and politics of u. S. Communication policy. When we allocated spectrum rights in 1927, within a couple years the regulators at commission are renewing licenses, but very carefully noting that propaganda stations will not be allowed. You hadearly on, 1929, left wing stations, if i can use owned by acal term, labor union in chicago, eugene debs, a socialist who had bought a station near new york city for political purposes, for free speech, they wanted to espouse their opinions. These were dubbed propaganda by the regulators. They were told to be careful about expressing their opinions. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan q a. On lectures and history university of kansas vassar teaches a class about omaha beach and the 1944 d day landings in normandy, france. He describes the allied and as well as the command structure on either side. He talks about the challenges faced by american troops trying to land on omaha beach, and argues the outcome was not inevitable. This class is about 50 minutes. Syllabus, page 10. Question number seven and eight on your syllabus. Page 10. Described and characterized the normandy invasion and why did the allies succeed. Explain victory and defeat. Why was the normandy invasion significant . Why was the battle for a half each a font of victory . A fought victory . How many red omaha beach . Here we go. [laughter] how many have read it . Thesis, someone held me out. Help me out. Basically that the operations failed, and that the soldiers were the ones that basically won the battle or succeeded with the operation. They organized themselves on the beach in the middle of the fire to get operations underway. The argument of the book is that the overall plan for omaha beach failed. All of the airpower, all of those things failed. As a consequence, soldiers were forced to improvise. That is the thesis of the book. The battle of omaha beach was won by soldiers, not by strategic bombers or battleships. Was won by soldiers on the ground. Why . What is the argument to explain why the operation took such a wrong turn at omaha beach . Basically it was the failure of the combined doctrine. Both british and American Forces had their own doctrine. It was the first time we had to take part in combined doctrines or combined operations. When you think about the normandy invasion, you have combined operations, the british and americans working together. You also had joint operations. And u. S. And air force navy all had to work together. The british would come up with one solution. If i gave the americans the same problem, they would come up with a different solution. To the french would come up with a different solution. We had two different amphibious warfare doctrine. Developed aorps doctrine for the pacific developed on nass firepower. Had cruisersthey and then the landings took place. That is not what he did in normandy. Would conduct operations based on the principles of surprise. They went in with stealth, under the cover of darkness. They had to have a different amphibious warfare doctrine. We had two different approaches. You have the Navy Marine Corps doctrine and british doctrine. At normandy they tried to merge those. What happens is ultimately neither one of these doctrines wereth doctrines they had better than what they came up with. That is the thesis and argument we want to make today. If we canets see start this discussion. Where were we last class . The Strategic Bombing campaign, and where else were we . Stalingrad. This is a full extension of germany. We have covered stalingrad the last class. What are these areas in white . Sweden and switzerland. Are they really neutral . No, they are not really neutral. They are supporting germany in a number of different ways. That is the full extension. Since that we did the landings in north africa. This is june 6, 1944. Take a look at north africa. That is all clear. Then we went from north africa into sicily, then from sicily into italy. All of that is cleared now. The germans on this side, russians on the offense of. We had the battle of stalingrad. You can see the russian advance here. This is the german empire. This is the way it extends at this point in june. Lets take a look at geography. Notice the difference. You are in nazi germany now. You want to take a look at the difference between the English Channel to germany, and over here on the eastern front. Where do you have more space . On the eastern front. As a consequence, it were shifts hitlers shifts his priorities. The new difference will be on the western front. Itler shiftsence h divisions to the western front. When normandy takes place there will be 60 german divisions on the western front. The germans know where the normandy invasion is going to take place, who wins . Germany, that is right. 60 divisions. When we conduct the landing there will be five divisions, 3 Airborne Divisions. We would lose in that case. The germans however have a problem. This is the german chain of command. Hitlers at the top. This man would be responsible as general, the head of okw. Runstest in the theater has two army groups, army group b and army group g. Where most interested in army group b under rommel. This is strategic reserve. They will leave five or six armored divisions in the rear for Strategic Reserves to respond to different situations. That is the thinking. Here is our chain of command. Take a look. You have the normandy area where the invasion will actually take place. What is the shortest distance between two points . Rightyou have the normandy ther. What is the distance . You have heard of people swimming the English Channel. A short distance touring two points short distance between two points, where do you think the invasion should take place . Ais area, that would be the argument. However the germans have a problem. They constructed this thing that we will call the atlantic wall. It will extend all across france into norway. They have building they have been building this thing for years. They poured concrete, mines, new types ofeated obstacles to put on the beach, they created tank ditches. This would be along the coast of what they call the atlantic wall. Still they have a problem. Lets think about the german conduct. May have been on the offense for a great deal they have been on the offense for a great deal. Let me give you two examples. Lets take 1917 and 1918. Germans are excellent in defensive warfare doctrine. They put defense in depth. You have seen the trench systems from world war i. You have that image in mind. Lets take 1940 with the fall of france. Best vast moving armored formations. There is a debate going on 1944n germany, 1943, early about how to conduct defense. Rommel has one set of ideas. The general has another set of ideas. Theykes the argument that should use the approach that used in 1940, maintain fastmoving heavy armored divisions. Those that can reinforce the beach. He says they needs to put a defensive perimeter along the coast. Very thin. All they really need to know is where the main attack is coming from. Once they figure that out, the main attack will then start. They will let the situation develop so they can make sure it is the main attack. Then they want to maneuver their armored formations, those heavy cores, into place so that they can defeat that course. General rommel had another vision for the conduct. He did not think that was a good approach. More world war i approach. He wanted to build a Strong Defense along the coast. Longest day, which they made into a movie. That is a quote from rommel, the longest day. He believed that the battle had to be one on dday. Won on theday, and beaches. He wants to put a strong defensive perimeter along the beaches. He wants to make this as strong as possible. What is in rommels thinking . Rommel has been in north africa, fought the british, fought the americans, somewhat thin he is of the opinion that airpower will preclude. Believeseaves if he if they use another approach. Prerequisite for amphibious invasion is naval superiority. Air superiority is something that we win by 1944. You are able to interdict those forces. Rommel believes that allied air power is so significant in that they will not be able to get to the beaches. Rear, you near the will never make it forward. Rommel will be implicated in the plot to assassinate hitler. How many have seen that movie . A scheme that was eventually hatched. Mel is not of the opinion for the russians, stalingrad is the most important campaign. For the british, normandy is the most important campaign. Lets think about what rommel was thinking at this point in time. He is no longer of the opinion that germany will have a complete and total victory in world war ii. The russians have been only offense. Germans have lost millions of soldiers. He no longer believes there is going to be a complete and total victory. Win, inif you can normandy if he can win in normandy, it will be six months to one year before they can restart the second. Restart this again. I take my 60 divisions and move them across europe and stabilize the front across the russians and try to come to some sort of settlement where germany maintains the area it has conquered. He is not thinking in terms of total victory. He is thinking he has to defeat the british at normandy. If they can do that, they can stabilize the 60 divisions and there is still a good outcome for germany. That is his thinking at this point in time. That is why germany is important to rommel. For the germans take they have sake, theyrmans have to be successful. What does this mean for the americans . 1943, planning goes into the invasion. The normandy was selected because it was poorly defended in 1943. The invasion wont take place for another year, but it was selected in 1943. When it was selected, it was poorly defended. Not only was it poorly defended, 716th infantry division. That division had a 50 mile front. At omaha beach, they had a couple battalions. One year later, when rommel is put in charge of differences, a lot of the forces we talked about have been moved forward. Hitler did not give rumble everything that he asked for, but he gave them some of those things. Instead of fighting the 716th infantry division, take a look at this bottom map it will be moved forward. We did not know that. 24 hours aftert the First Infantry Division lands at omaha beach. We learn 24 hours ahead of time. It is very three 52nd that has 352nd that hashe been moved forth. Another issue is the intelligence failure when you think about the outcome. Part of it is rommels concept of defense. Year and he is put in charge, he will dig more tank ditches and more obstacles in place. Morrisons book on the normandy invasion, hubert the following he wrote the following even the japanese defenses at wa and peleliu is not to be compared to this. The navy could blow up those islands for days. You could not do that in normandy. Why . If you pulled up to normandy, 10 battleships and cruisers start destroying defenses, it would telegraph to the germans where the invasions would take place. The element of surprise is significant. This. T the other side of you ought to recognize this guy. Who is that guy . He ultimately becomes president , eisenhower, supreme allied commander. Who in the chain of is next in the chain of command . British deputy commander. General walter smith, chief of staff. Who is he . He is an american. The firstill become director of the cia. If you take a look at this thing, all the seniormost operational commanders are pretty. Are british. Why did the british get all of the seniormost commanders . Montgomery will commend the 21st command the 21st army group. General bradley will be one of the fivestar generals we produce. Then you have general dempsey, a british commander, commending the commending the forces at normandy. This command structure is a holdover from the mediterranean. The british tended to get the seniormost operational assignments. Lets think about this job for a minute. Else might have been in the running for the job . Patton, you could make an argument for him. Patton will be given an interesting assignment. He will be in charge of a fake army. We call this operation fortitude. It is a planned invasion with no troops involved. It is a deception plan. Is given the assignment. We create the illusion we are going to attack in the calais area. Ton does have a role to play, and operation fortitude is part of that. There is a guy named general marshall. He would have liked this job also as supreme military commander. There is also the head of the British Imperial staff. Both of them would have liked this job. Alan brooks was promised this job several times by churchill. What do you think . Why didnt he get it . By the time you get to normandy, American Resources are starting to dwarf those of britain. When we were in north africa, in sicily, there was relative parity. By the time you get to normandy, that parity is gone. When you look at normandy, you have 60 american divisions and 16 british divisions in europe. Should be in charge who should be in charge . Two of those are canadian. Eisenhower ultimately ends up with the job. Roosevelt once said he did not sleep well at night when marshall was out of washington dc. Martial has been running the war the whole time. Toiral king made an argument fdr that marshall ought to stay in washington, that he should orchestrate the overall war effort. He didnt get the job either. Eisenhower, third in line for this position. We create this thing called the combined chiefs of staff. You will enter europe, and in nations,on with other that is what they did here. However eisenhower is selected that he will be the supreme allied commander in december 1943. Bradley is also selected in december 1943. The plans were made before eisenhower and montgomery were even selected. There was this thing called the cossack staff. Star and twone star develop the plans for the normandy invasion. When montgomery comes into this thing, the plans have already been developed. They inherit all of the work done by the cossack staff. They did enormous research. A 1000 miles front. They did research on beaches, quality of beaches. Y looked at facilities port facilities, all of the things that had to take place. The research was done even before eisenhower was selected for this. The classic staff did not get enough credit for the normandy invasion. Stafflassic cossack will have three divisions landing on either side of each other at normandy. They will have two Airborne Divisions. Out area is all flooded intentionally by the germans. This is where the Airborne Operations take place. Every commander that served in the mediterranean look at this plan and said it was too small. There was a story about churchill and montgomery having dinner in december 1943 and church hill pulls up the plans for the normandy invasion and shows them to montgomery. Montgomery excuses himself, which is not what you normally do to the prime minister, takes the plans, studies them all night, comes down and talks to churchill and says the plan is t oo small. Thenhower is also given plans for the normandy invasion. He takes a look at them and guess what he says . It is too small, not enough forces are being landed. Both of them come to the same conclusions from looking at the initial plan. Ssack staff was given limitations. They are working with the limitations they had. This is their initial plan. This is their initial plan. Ultimately, montgomery, who will be in charge of the ground forces, will change that plan. This comes to be known as the montgomery plant. As a consequence they will expand the landing. Ssack staff was given. E end up with omaha the british will put three divisions ashore, and the americans will put two divisions ashore. Where is the First Infantry Division now . Fort riley, that is right. It is still with us today. Ultimately this is what the plan looks like. Eisenhower is theater commander. Airpower and everything is under his authority. Montgomery is the ground force commander. He is the guy in charge of the operations for the invasion. Keep in mind this will be the largest invasion in history. Even today, nothing comes close to this thing. 5000 ships will be involved. 1000 warships, transportation ships it is enormous event to orchestrate. Montgomery is the commander overall. Bradley of the first u. S. Army, and dempseys army. Then we will send in the seventh , the chief of staff of the army will go in. Corps will consist of the first and second and 29th infantry divisions. All of those will be part of the 5th corps landing at a place called omahaall of those will b. We just talked about landing. These are the ports they will be coming out of for the invasion. Portland, portsmouth, etc. , the entire area of british coastline is owned essentially by the military for this invasion. Equipment. Piles of i will run through this quickly. Tons and tons of equipment are stockpiled for the cross channel attack. The destiny of two great empires seem to be tied to lst. The landing was supposed to take place in may. Montgomeryower and expand the plan, they need more Landing Craft. Goes out to the United States to see how more landing casts they can get together. It is pushed back a month toward june so they can get everything ready for the landing. In terms of equipment, a division in combat goes through tons of equipment per day. You think about a tank, just the gas that it goes through, and all of the ammunition in combat. When you think about those things, tons of equipment has to be transported across the English Channel. To do this, they need pieces of technology. How many of you have been to normandy . You been to omaha beach . Have you seen those pieces of the mulberry . You go there now, pieces are still out, out there. I told you before, i did a thing for nova on this thing. Off the coast of france under the water, there is a graveyard, ships,ships tanks, sunken things left over. Right now on the coast of france. This is the lst. This was developed during world war ii. They were made where . A lot made here in the midwest. Indiana, chicago, illinois, a lot were made right here. They pulled them down the Mississippi River and drop them over to england. They come out so many of these pumped out, they did not name them. They just stuck a number on them, lst. This is important for technology for the conduct of the land. Ballast analyst take tank. It pumps water in going to see, in the water, it gets closer to starting off,