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Niels Henkemans Profile picture
Niels Henkemans
@Niels_1944
🇳🇱 Specialist on Normandy 1944, esp. the Cotentin. Author of 'Defending Normandy' book series. Love history books but prefer to study the records myself
May 25, 2024 • 37 tweets • 11 min read
Thread #dday80
When talking about the German preparations for the Allied Invasion (AKA D-Day), a lot of attention goes to the (in)famous Panzer Reserve. With 10 Panzer Divisions and 1 Pz.Gren.Div., this force sounds formidable. But it is often overlooked what it actually was... Image The level to which these divisions were operational varied wildly on D-Day Many had serious manpower problems (too few officers & NCOs), mobility issues, lack of (formation) training and shortage of weaponry/armor. So let's take a closer look at them...
May 15, 2024 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Thread (on going)
With #DDay80 approaching fast, I'll try to address some myths. Let's begin with Omaha Beach, or more precisely the 352.I.D.
It's been called everything from elite to poor, but usually such extremes are not based on actual records. This list is.😎 Image When it came to armament, the division was pretty much up to authorised strength, all of it modern and German. This is very clear for its heavy weapons but the number of mortars and MGs are also impressive.
Outdated coastal (static) weapons merely augmented its firepower
Nov 30, 2021 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
Thread:
The 2 Dutch gunboats H.N.M.S Soemba and Flores participated in Operation Neptune. Armed with 3 15cm (5.9") guns they earned the nickname 'Terrible Twins' for their operation in the Mediterranean.
Getting the Soemba ready for D-Day required a peculiar series of messages... One of her guns was out of order. Knowing that replacing it in those busy times would get little priority, A.D. Nicoll decided to make the request as a poem to help move things along.
Yes, a poem.

(image above is of the Flores, used because it shows the guns very well (NIHM))
Nov 29, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Although I typically post about German forces, I'm actually just as interested in the allies.

When studying the fighting on the Cotentin peninsula it quickly becomes clear how costly the campaign was for both sides. Here is a casualty list of the infantry regiments of the US 4ID The total number of casualties in the division in June 44 was 5.414. When we subtract that slightly wounded/injured the number is still 4.712
Sep 15, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
@OberstWKlink suggested I shared this with my followers and he is of course right... ... Good allied intel documents are available on all these unit symbols, so if you want to move ahead and educate yourself you can use these links...
Sep 14, 2021 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Thread: German orbats #3 Let’s continue our crash course of German OOBs. We’ll stay with this one Image Link to the previous thread:
Aug 18, 2021 • 24 tweets • 8 min read
Thread: German orbats #2
Let’s continue our crash course of German OOBs. We’ll zoom in on this one In case you missed the first thread
Aug 17, 2021 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Thread: German orbats
German document can be very interesting, even if you don’t speak German.

Their visual OOBs are prob the best example of that, if you know what the symbols mean.
Yes, you can look those up online, but how about a crash course in several threads? Modern publications typically use NATO symbols. Useful, but also boring.
(Examples from Zetterling’s ‘Normandy 1944’ and Zaloga’s ‘Cherbourg 1944’)
Jul 27, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
Thread: German 'stomach' and 'ear' units

Let's continue examining Cross-Channel Attack's (CCA) take on the German troops. For 1950/1951 it was admirable, but as we have seen yesterday not all of it holds up. Image Now look at this sentence. The German use of stomach units has become (in)famous, but CCA correctly states that was just one division: the 70ID Image
Jul 26, 2021 • 21 tweets • 5 min read
Thread: German static divisions in Normandy supposedly had very poor personnel. While true to some extend but as always it's a bit more complicated. Cross-Channel Attack (1951) made a serious attempt for a balanced view. Arguably better than much what has been written since! Image The book seems to be key in spreading the message that 'the average age of the 709ID was 36'. This is commonly presented as fact when in fact it was based on anecdotal evidence: An officer explaining the failure of his division.
His claim made it into German records as well 🙄 Image
Jul 6, 2021 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
By 1944 a standard German infantry division had about 4.000 horses. Yes, you read that correctly: 4.000
#WW2 #SWW #History Image The number of horses for the artillery as show here is actually too low because it included some batteries with just 3 guns, instead of the actual 4 Image
Jul 2, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
Thread:
On 21 June 7.Armee was still responsible for the fighting in Normandy with a considerable force under its command Image Its forces were still growing in number. Image
Mar 3, 2021 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
There seem to be two options in talks about German MGs on the D-Day beaches:
1) All guns MG42s (especially at Omaha)
2) Just old and captured MGs
Neither are true. Let’s take a quick look at the available numbers for the 716ID and 352ID. [I’ll ignore the Osttruppen for now] The 716ID was a static division, so poorly equipped with just old and captured MGs. Right? Not quite.
So why the confusion? For one people confuse organic and static weapons. Big no no.