Saturday, January 21, 2012

On D-day, how many miles away were the ships that fired shells on the beaches of Normandy?

A reference would be helpful.

On D-day, how many miles away were the ships that fired shells on the beaches of Normandy?
Some of the smaller naval ships such as destroyers approached to within 2000 yards of the beach. Cruisers Tuscaloosa and Quincy, with their 8-in guns lingered some 4-6 miles from the coast. Battleships Arkansas, Texas and Nevada had 14- in. main batteries as well as 5-in secondary armament. The range of these main batteries exceeded som 17,000 yards (10 miles)

Besides these Blue-water ships the myriad of landing ships and craft also were armed with things such as rockets and guns up to 5-in. They also sported many smaller caliber cannon and machine guns and would have engaged German Defenders all the way to the beach.



The battleships lingered 10-12 miles from the coast so they were able to engage German defenses several miles inland.
Reply:I couldn't find exactly out how close the destroyers were to the shore, but they had to be very close to be sunk by mines which were placed on the tetrahedrons.

They were engaging in artillery shootout with gun emplacements on the hills above the beaches. These ships made runs close to the beach.

Check out the U.S.S.Corry DD 463, which was engaging enemy shore batteries off "Utah" Beach when she hit a mine and sank.

Check out this web site: http://www.destroyersonline.com/usndd/li...


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