21st Panzer Division

Erwin keeps asking for troops to help cover Normandy and Brittany.

His requests aren't granted because, as he'll later write, "...for fears of a possible enemy airborne landing in the neighborhood of Paris." Captain Eberhard Wagermann, staff officer of the 21st Panzer Division, will later recall, As for the Allies, decrypted messages between the Desert Fox and the High Command reveal that divisions are short men, tanks, and other weapons.

Entering late May, the preparatory bombings and French resistance-led sabotage continue.

On May 28th, American bombers raid German synthetic oil plants.

Instead, the Fuhrer reached a decision that pleased no one.

Rommel was to be given command of three mobile reserve divisions, including the 21st Panzer Division, which was already stationed in Normandy.

Von Schweppenberg was assigned command of four divisions, and the last three would be sent to the newly formed Army Group G in southern France.

As a final insult to his commanders, the Fuhrer decreed that only he could authorize them to move the Panzer divisions.

And so he'd fallen into a bit of a slump.

Rommel had insisted that the 7th Army be commanded by the competent General Erich Marcks, but he was relegated to command of 84th Corps instead.

General Edgar Feuchtinger owed his command of the 21st Panzer Division to political connections with the Nazis.

He helped to plan the military portions for the Nazi Party rallies at Nuremberg in the 1930s, thus gaining access to Adolf Hitler and other Nazi Party leaders like Albert Speer.

His book is Sword Beach, D-Day Baptism by Fire, The Powers on the Left Flank.

the armor and the infantry landing on the beach, and the 21st Panzer Division, especially the Panzer Grenadiers commanded by Hans von Luck.

They're looking for armor, too.

And the armor is not moving.

And the air forces, and one can't overstate the importance of the air support both American and British troops received on D-Day and throughout Normandy, because... as the panzers moved up from their overnight leaguers, that they'd been delayed all the time by air attack once daylight came.

But it could all have been different if they got moving in darkness, but they didn't get moving until much too late.

But finally, by mid-afternoon, They are getting everybody in line to launch an attack by 21st Panzer Division on the troops of 3rd Division.

But of course, one thing that's vital, if as they well could, 21st Panzer Division had attacked the British 3rd Division in the morning, then hardly any British tanks were ashore.