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A special edition of Radio 4's long-running counterfactual history series, What If..? imagines the consequences had the D Day landings failed on 6 June 1944, taking over from where From Dunkirk To D Day left off.
As General Dwight Eisenhower knew only too well, the Normandy landings were an enormous gamble. On the eve of D Day he even wrote a communiqué that he would have released had the landings failed. It's far from beyond the bounds of possibility that the Allies might have met considerably greater German opposition than they did.
The historian and broadcaster Professor Christopher Andrew speaks to a group of distinguished historians representing Britain, the USA and Germany.
They are D Day veteran John Gritten, 85, the only Official Naval Reporter to land on D Day; Professor David Stafford, Dept of World War Studies, University of Edinburgh; Dr Soenke Neitzel, University of Mainz; Professor Dennis Showalter, Colorado Liberal Arts College in the United States and Dr Gary Sheffield, who teaches both at Kings College London and the Joint Services Staff College in Shrivenham. Together they imagine the consequences of Allied failure to open a Western Front against Germany. Among the scenarios they consider are:
The weather - D Day had already been postponed for 24 hours by 6 June - it's quite conceivable that it might have had to be delayed again. However the next occasion when the tides were favourable wasn't until a fortnight later, by which time the Germans may well have discovered the true objectives of the greatest seaborne invasion in military history, and been much better prepared to repel the Allies.
Intelligence - A huge Allied deception operation contributed to the success of D Day, attributable in large part to the misinformation supplied by a double-agent codenamed Garbo. Hitler's conviction that the true destination for the landings was the Pas de Calais rather than Normandy is directly due to Garbo's misinformation. Had Garbo been discredited, Field Marshal Rommel might well have won his argument to have greater numbers of men and munitions at his disposal to defend the Normandy coast.
Having established these grounds on which D Day might well have failed Chris Andrew pursues the military and political fall-out of such a pivotal event. It makes for sober listening. The Allies were unlikely to have been able to launch a similar venture for at least a further year or 18 months. During that time the Red Army is likely to have continued its westward advance unopposed. Would it have stopped at Berlin? Chris Andrew imagines a Communist continent of Europe, dominated by Stalin.
The programme takes place in the Map Room of Southwick House, just inland from Portsmouth, the very room where General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, took the decision to launch the landings.
Presenter/Christopher Andrew, Producer/Mark Smalley
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