"Vanishing American Air Superiority"

On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:46:13 -0000, "Keith Willshaw"
wrote:



"Dean" wrote in message
...
On Mar 19, 1:28 pm, Bill Kambic wrote:
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:53:42 -0700 (PDT), Jack Linthicum

wrote:
Look up "Mulberry"

I know what a "Mulberry" was. I also know that they were part of a
solution. What was the rest of it?

Capturing Cherbourg.

That was part of it but until a port was captured and repaired the
allies relied on a combination of Mulberry harbours and landing supplies
on the beach. The allies used large numbers of specialist landing craft and
landing ships along with the DUKW amphibious trucks.

The Germans had none of these methods available in 1940.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. :-)

There's the crux of the matter. The Allies in '44 had THOUSANDS of
small, specfifically designed ships that could support land forces by
delivering supplies acrross a beach. Or at a quay. They could make
multiple trips. They had (at least at the LST level) limited self
defense capability. And until Antwep was captured and put back into
service they were the lifeline for the Allied armies.

Excatly how many LSTs were in the KM order of battle? Or any other
ship of similar capability? How many Mulberries did the KM have? How
many miles of undersea petrolium piping could they lay to deliver fuel
to their forces?

If the Germans had invaded they would have had about 48 hours to win
or they would have had to either withdraw of die slowly of starvation.
The "logistics tail" to support any sort of extended campaign did not
exist.