Comments by "Nattygsbord" (@nattygsbord) on "Why Intelligence Failures Happen?" video.
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A good example of an organizational reform, was the germans decision to hand over more decision making from the high level to the NCOs. That improved decision making by taking the burden of analyzing information for the high level, and people on the lower level got more freedom to act upon first hand information.
Chiefs at the higher level would simply be unable to have a good overview upon EVERYTHING happening on the battlefield... The fighting morale of his men, the combat strenght of the enemy, having knowledge of if a logistics transport have been halted by a mine... all those small details that make up a greater whole of a military operation.
By this model information can be faster interpreted, and transformed into action.
Having a centralized organization can work in a factory, but in far you have a time factor for your decision making, and not everything works as anticipated. And your enemy makes everything he can to mislead you, and whenever he can he will also surprise you.. and sometimes he will also probably succed. And other factors aren't known as well, you don't know how well your untested weaponsystems will perform. You don't know how fighting morale will be affected by the unique circumstances at the moment.
So therefore you can't plan everything into the smallest detail, so some flexibility and improvisation is needed. But of course you also need to set up a larger strategic goal in your war, but there must be some flexibility to act upon the circumstances to fullfill your plan.
This flexibility gave the germans a great advantage in both the world wars. And the NCOs felt a greater personal repsonsability when he was not just a cog a in a machinery, but a man with responsability for his own unit.. to make sure that his assault is succesful and that objective is captured, that the logistics runs smoothly, and that coordination functions properly.
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The germans were right about the assumption that landings would happen somewhere within range of allied airpower. But they couldn't pinpoint exactly where, so there easiest guess would be that it would happen in the most narrow part of the English channel. The allies, then tried to reinforce that belief by doubling up the airstrikes at the Calais area, while normandy didn't get as much attention by the bombers.
So then the landings happened, and years of preperations.. with planning for what men to put where, getting the right equipment and then all logistical tasks of transporting fuel, ammo, food 1,5 million men. And it all that went smoothly, and deserves credits as one of the most succesfully planned operations in history in that sense. But what was not impressive was the failure of the allied intelligence to pick up information about the terrain around the beachhead. So while the allied were succesful in their landings, their breakout couldn't be done for 2 months.. despite the germans were heavily outnumbered (just 200.000 men) and didn't have the luxury of supplies as allied units and they also got hammered by naval and airforces.
The Germans didn't even commit half of their forces away from the Calais area even 2 months after the fighting in Normandy had begun, because they though it just was a small operation to divert attention away to an even larger landing.
The gemans had skilled hardened veterans leading their men, and they undestood how to fully take advantage of all trees and bushes in Normandy for making ambushes, and dug themselves in to protect themselves from allied bombardement. The Americans under Patton tried to make a push in the west but got stuck, and Montgomery tired to make a push in the east but failed. The allied intelligence simply had forgot taking this terrain into consideration when they planned the Normandy landings.. despite all access to air reconnaissance planes, local partisans, people who had lived, worked and in the area or been there for tourism.
The sturdy buildings, the stone walls, the thick hedgerows, the tightly clustered houses in many villages, the narrow roads which often were sunken or having stone embarkments on either sides, lots of sturdy buildings enables every competend commander to recreate a great defensive position like the german lines in world war 1.
The allied tried multiple times to breakout but failed every time.. and it seemed like the Germans could have contained them in Normandy for the entire rest of the year. And things didn't look happier for the allies when the british army was starting to run out of infantry after all the fighting.
So an allied a push towards Cherbourg was needed so the troops in Normandy could get a harbour, so the job of supplying this huge force could be done easier. And the American push to the west was succesful, but the main German defensive line around Normandy remained intact, and the allies were still contained by this tiny German force.
But the loss of Cherbourg made Hitler furious, and he demanded a counter-attack.
So the German army repeated the mistakes the allies had done the 2 months, and now they themselves attacked with tanks in terrain totally unsuitable for them. And the Germans suffered so heavy losses that their offensive at Avranches that they had to cancel the operation. And now the German army in Normandy had been weakened so much that it no longer could hold the defensive line intact, as the allies made their next breakout attempt. So at the end of the month the German defense had collapsed, and Hitler had helped to create one of the most fateful military defeats the German army suffered from in World War 2.
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