When did the Germans realize the D-Day landing was the real invasion and not a diversion?
by Dion Osika Editor’s note: ‘Scout’ recently posed the above question on the CombatFan discussion group when noting some discrepancies among opinion of the Germans as presented in the films “The Longest Day” and “Patton.” Below is a response by Dodger (aka Dion Osika) regarding the German High Command and D-Day. We thought you might find his analysis interesting. Jan 04, 2003 Dodger here … First of all, the sequence of events you described are reasonably accurate and in correct order. What movies fail to explain to us is usually all the whys that influenced the decisions made by the historical characters. Patton and Operation Fortitude The German command always believed that the Allies had more men (divisions) and naval forces available. This was brought about by a massive failure of their intelligence network and by the Allied deception plan, Operation Fortitude. The Allies set up Patton to command the nonexistent First Army Group, which the Germans were to believe would be the mai
