[grues-dinner]

I think there are two ways to interpret that sentence: "it would have been important": one which implies tidal prediction was unavailable at D-day but would have been useful, and one that implies it was indeed available (subjunctive conditional or "the Anderson case", apparently, per Wikipedia)

I don't think anyone is claiming tide times were so unpredictable in 1945.

[pfdietz]

They were predictable. Interestingly, Rommel misunderstood how tides affected landings. He thought the landings would be done at high tide, so the invading troops wouldn't have to advance across wide expanses of beach. In reality, the allies wanted to invade on a rising tide, so the landing craft, grounded to let out troops, would refloat and be able to move back out. Also, invading at lower tide meant beach obstacles would be exposed and unable to damage the landing craft.