ORIGINAL: henri51
....BTW, the initial fighting of the 17th SS PzGr that you describe was against paratroopers dropped in the wrong place, and not against the seaborne invasion forces to which the "Tom Hanks" character belonged. So I stand by my statement that the movie showing "Tom Hanks's" unit fighting SS units and tanks is ahistorical.
Actually, I own the movie. I have the german (dubbed) DVD version, but it contains the original english audio tracks, too. I guess you are referring to the scene at the beach, where the commander of Charlie Coy (Tom Hanks) reports to his superior officer, reporting about a mission conducted after the fight at the beach, sometime between D-Day and D-Day +3. Hanks reports about resistance from the German 346. Infantry Division as part of Kampfgruppe von Luck. Historically, the 346. Division was somewhere in that area, but von Luck wasn't. Hanks mentions the 88's, but he does not mention the SS: "They .... just didn't wanna give up those 88s".
Later on, when they meet Ryan, on the other side of the knocked out halftrack, Ryan's group mentions that the halftrack must have been a recon element of the 2nd Panzer-Division, which is, of course, another factual error, since the 2. SS-Panzer-Division did engage somewhere around Caen, facing British units.
I just played the movie, and I have not seen/heard a statement in that movie, neither in the German version nor in the English version, that would allow for a quote "Von Luck's 88s and the SS", yet. Von Luck's "Kampfgroup" is only mentioned during the scene I described above, well unless you point me to the exact minute where I can hear such statement. Right now, it sounds like you're mixing it up.
As for the use of 88s against tanks, you are correct, and I was misled by von Luck's account, which DOES show that if their antitank use was widespread, it was not universal.
Well, not necessarily, because you don't know the motivation behind that officer's statement.
Also, with the numbers of AT guns, Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks that were available prior to D-Day, commanders of Flak units (means not just single guns in defensive positions), could very well assume that a unit's AT elements would jump in to take care of Allied tanks, before they would risk precious guns in relatively close (compared to the distance when serving as artillery with a range of ~15 kilometers) combat, as they could be deployed as capable artillery guns.
And in any case, they were certainly not used by Von Luck against the Americans as the movie says.
According to the movie script, 88s fired at Sherman tanks (moving inland or towards German strongpoints), knocking out "four of our Shermans and a number of our deuce and a half" (2.5 ton trucks), in the process. Hanks does not indicate whose 88s had been destroyed, he just mentions that Von Luck's 346. Inf Division and remnants of other units defended the 88 sites/area. So, except for the presence of Von Luck, such event could have occured, as the 346th Inf Division was in the area, at the time.
Apparently, the movie moved British Operation Goodwood forward in time, and then spatially moved the 88s stopping the operation to the US front.
They mixed in everything, Rangers (who actually climbed the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc), a bit of Goodwood, some fierce fighting SS units, a bridge, and a Tiger tank. Entertainment. Thrill.
Fact is, though, Normandy was packed with AA guns, despite the density being even higher in the Calais area. One reasoning for not conducting a landing in the Calais area was that the level of fortification with bunkers and coastal guns and the density of the AA network was deemed to be too high by the planners. The density in Normandy was still sufficient to get a carpet of shells in the air, when the Paras were dropped, though. Para veteran reports about the fierce AA fire describe the horror that they had to go through.
That said .... I don't think you understand how the German defensive network was organized. With regular air raids on French city railroad hubs, defense and radar installations in 1943 and 1944, the Germans had built up an array of Anti-aircraft guns of all available calibres in hundreds of places.
The chances were high, that Para troops, or tanks that were landed during D-Day or later on and brought forward (inland), would stumble over a roadblock or fortified position equipped with a MG 42 and a Flak 88, or even stumble into a group of (fixed?) 88s, intended to cover the beaches or protect installations.
You could find AA guns behind trench and bunker lines (like the 37mm or 22mm twin or quad-flak gun on top of Pointe du Hoc, which denied the rangers access to the 2nd trench line for a while), right behind the main beach front, as well as in reinforced and camouflaged hedgerows, as part of the defense at bridges and dams, in and around cities, and around harbors.
On top of that, fixed and mobile flak units were lined up at the usual routes of Allied bomber squadrons, ready to fill the air with their time fuzed shells. While the Flak network density in Germany was the highest one in Europe, Northern France, including its coastal areas, had good AA coverage as well. That density and the fear of high losses made the Allies pick landing and drop zones further away from more promising landing zones during the planning of Overlord and during the planning of Market Garden. Since the flak could be put on a carriage (where it then took 2 minutes for experienced crews to deploy it again, only, according to vet accounts), it could be hauled to chokepoints or to places where Allied attacks were imminent, rather quickly.