After he had washed his face in the Officers’ Latrine, Brigadier General Norman “Dutch” Cota walked past all the desks outside General Omar Bradley’s office and went right in unannounced. He briefly saluted his former West Point football team-mate, who was now the Commander of the US First Army, tasked with the landings on Omaha and Utah Beaches.
“Brad, we have a serious problem.”
Bradley, fully aware of Cota’s continuing reservations about a daylight landing, really didn’t want to be interrupted just then by a repeat of Cota’s protests and spoke first. “Dutch, we’ve already settled the daylight . . .”
But Cota cut him off mid-sentence. “No, I’ve bought in to a daylight assault; it isn’t that. But I’m real nervous about the odds, if we give the Krauts anything like 15 to 20 minutes after the naval bombardment ends. If any troops in bunkers aren’t knocked-off by the Air Force and Navy, just a few MG-42 machine guns ready for our guys will cause an awful lot of casualties.”
Cota repeated, calmly, the logic he expressed earlier about the realistic expectations for the dawn bomber strikes and then went through the probability analysis prepared by the team of mathematicians. I’m convinced that our odds of success and holding down the casualty count will be much improved, if we go ahead with Operation BOOKMARK.”
Cota went through the details of BOOKMARK for Bradley, who listened attentively with pursed lips. I think Air Marshall Leigh-Mallory will veto BOOKMARK in favor of sticking to interdiction plans inland against troops and tanks moving towards the beaches. All we need is a couple of hours to concentrate on the beach defenses and then Leigh-Mallory can have all his planes back. If all goes well, we’ll be up off the beaches and past the Kraut defenses by then.”
“How many planes in BOOKMARK?”
“110 fighters plus one bomber.”
Bradley inhaled through his teeth, making a hissing sound. “I can see why Leigh-Mallory would oppose that diversion.”
“I believe an awful lotta guys are going to die needlessly unless we keep Jerry in his bunkers while the landing craft are reaching the beaches. I’m absolutely convinced we need to do BOOKMARK.”
“What do you want me to do, Dutch?”
“Get Ike to persuade Leigh-Mallory.”