Why D-Day Will Never Happen Again

[SPQR]

By Micheal Peck

 Even 70 years later, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944—D-Day—is awe-inspiring. The statistics alone boggle the mind. Seven thousand ships, 12,000 aircraft and 160,000 troops. All concentrated on a small slice of the French coast.

It was incredible. It was magnificent. It was terrible.

And it will never happen again.

In fact, it hasn’t happened again. History’s last major amphibious assault was more than 60 years ago, when U.S. Marines landed at Inchon, South Korea, in September 1950.

What changed?

The death knell for massive seaborne invasions sounded on Aug. 6, 1945, when Hiroshima became the first victim of a new weapon called the atomic bomb. One didn’t have to be an Adm. Chester Nimitz to realize that a bomb that could destroy a city could also wipe out a fleet.

The U.S. Navy tested the effects of nuclear weapons on ships at Bikini Atoll in 1946. An aircraft carrier, a surrendered Japanese battleship, plus assorted light warships, transports and landing craft anchored at ground zero. Two 23-kiloton nuclear warheads exploded
Imagine a nuclear weapon detonating amid a D-Day-size armada, and you’ll understand why giant invasion fleets fell victim to the Nuclear Age.

But D-Day wasn’t just an amphibious landing. It was an amphibious assault. The troops didn’t merely wade onto a beach. They fought their way through German defenses.

The first wave at Omaha Beach, immortalized in Saving Private Ryan, suffered more than 50-percent casualties. And that was facing World War II weaponry such as rifles, machine guns and unguided artillery. Not modern smart weapons.

Even irregular armies like Hezbollah have land-based anti-ship guided missiles. In the Falklands in 1982, Argentine planes fired Exocet missiles that sank several British ships. And the Exocets are nothing compared to today’s supersonic missiles like the Russian Yakhont—not to mention Chinese ship-killing rockets.

It’s not that amphibious landings will never happen again. Sometimes going in by sea, as the British did in the Falklands, may be the only way to seize territory. The U.S. still has dozens of amphibious assault ships, each of which can carry hundreds of Marines.

But a D-Day invasion fleet? Tens of thousands of troops storming ashore under heavy enemy fire?

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/why-d-day-will-never-happen-again-4c1155f4bb7a

[SPQR]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwhBlVpSnM

Operation Crossroads: Able and Baker

I had to make a slight modification to see the power of both bombs

[SPQR]

The United States had a plan to invade Cuba code OPLAN 3-16. It was to use 18,000 American troops. But the public did not know that Cuba had a FROG tactical nuclear weapon waiting to be detonated over the landing zone.

[PzLdr]

As I recall, the German heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN, of BISMARCK and Channel Dash fame survived the first test bomb literally unscathed. So did IMS NAGATO. Most of the other ships suffered little if any significant damage. It took "stacking the deck" by detonating the second bomb under the anchored ships to produce the carnage. And even then NAGATO didn't sink immediately.

[SPQR]

As I recall, the German heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN, of BISMARCK and Channel Dash fame survived the first test bomb literally unscathed. So did IMS NAGATO. Most of the other ships suffered little if any significant damage. It took "stacking the deck" by detonating the second bomb under the anchored ships to produce the carnage. And even then NAGATO didn't sink immediately.

You are correct. The ships had their bottoms knocked out beneath them and they were so radioactive under the Baker shot. The USS Saratoga still can be observed from the sky.

[Oceander]

As I recall, the German heavy cruiser PRINZ EUGEN, of BISMARCK and Channel Dash fame survived the first test bomb literally unscathed. So did IMS NAGATO. Most of the other ships suffered little if any significant damage. It took "stacking the deck" by detonating the second bomb under the anchored ships to produce the carnage. And even then NAGATO didn't sink immediately.

But how much of the "wetware" on board - the animals - survived?  An intact ship crewed by corpses is, nonetheless, destroyed for all practical purposes.

[SPQR]

But how much of the "wetware" on board - the animals - survived?  An intact ship crewed by corpses is, nonetheless, destroyed for all practical purposes.

They put sheep,pigs and other animals incuding biological warfare agents. The animals died of the heat blast and radiation.

[Oceander]

They put sheep,pigs and other animals incuding biological warfare agents. The animals died of the heat blast and radiation.

exactly.

[SPQR]

exactly.

If you and to know and other programs get the Blue ray Version of Trinity: The Atomic Bomb Movie directed by Peter Kuran