Posted on 06/11/2015 6:12:28 AM PDT by Kaslin
Seventy-one years ago, the British, Canadians and Americans landed on the Normandy beaches to open a second ground front against Nazi Germany.
Operation Overlord -- the Allied invasion of Western Europe -- proved the largest amphibious operation in military history, dwarfing even Xerxes' Persian invasion of Greece in 480 B.C.
Brilliant planning, overwhelming naval support, air superiority and high morale ensured the successful landing of 160,000 troops on the first day -- at a cost of about 4,000 dead.
Three weeks after the June 6 landings, nearly a million Allied soldiers were ashore, heading eastward through France. Hitler's once-formidable Third Reich seemed on the verge of collapse. On the Eastern Front, the German army was imploding under the weight of 5 million advancing infantrymen of Russia's Red Army. At the same time, Allied four-engine bombers, with superb long-range fighter escorts, at last were beginning to destroy German transportation and fuel infrastructure.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Ping
Bush’s Fault? ;)
Easy. The Allied insistence on on conditional surrender. This terrified the Germans and helped keep Hitler in power. Of course, any “surrender” that kept the Nazis in power should have been rejected.
Because the WEAK CinCs Ike and Generals Bradley was too busy KISSING THE A$$ of Montgomery and letting him DICK around with BULL$HIT “Operations(Market Garden)” that WASTED TIME, MEN and MATERIALS that would/could have been better put to use by Patton. The NEXT question I have is WHY didn’t Ike know about the German Build-Up before the “Battle of the Bulge”? Was he too busy SCREWING Around in Paris? Ike was(in my opinion) much overrated!
VDH ping ... thanks Kaslin.
Montgomery was an idiot with failed military policies. He was more of a diplomat than a military leader and strategist.
More specifically, the lost opportunity to capture the approaches to Antwerp before the Germans had a chance to dig in. The port had been captured intact, but the estuary was neglected, even though there was the opportunity.
Instead, Monty’s ass was afire because Patton was getting all the ink. That was the reason he planned Market Garden, and insisted on the supplies to carry it out.
Instead, we got The Bulge, and East Germany postwar.
Hardly. The Marines alone lost 7,000 men taking Iwo Jima.
Because the Germans didn't invade England and invaded the USSR????
To say nothing of that pompous poofter Monty claiming that he could take Caen in a matter of days.
Instead it took over a month, allowing the Germans to bring tanks to bear to the SW as VDH mentions.
Bradley despised Montgomery and lost his command because of it.
Hanson is one of our nation’s finest essayists. He is a first rate classical scholar and military historian. He had a major impact in classical scholarship in his discussion of Greek development.
Correctamundo, sir...Monty was a big problem. In Ike’s defense, Churchill ( in one of his few big wartime mistakes) pushed Monty’s plans very hard, and FDR acquiesced. Ike’s hands were tied to some extent.
No doubt some mistakes were made. Not taking Caan before it was reinforced was a biggie similar to Anzio. Market Garden was a gamble that failed, and why didn’t we detect the Ardennes buildup just to mention a few. Not to mention the crazy Nazi’s expert defense.
WWII was so vast and complex you could argue about that forever.
Harry Dexter White, Undersecretary of the Treasury, was a Soviet Agent. He was the author of the policies that led to Pearl Harbor, an event which greatly aided the Soviets. He was also the author of the Morganthal Plan, a plan to deindustrialize Germany after the war. The Morgenthal Plan was a boon to the Nazis, and Goebbels was happy to publicize to stiffen German resistance in the West. Absent the Morganthal plan, German resistance in the west would have been much reduced.
My guess would be the German decision to leave troops behind in French and Belgian coastal cities. After the breakout from Normandy, the German strategy was to pull back to the Rhine, but leave significant garrisons in the coastal ports. This threw a serious monkey wrench in Allied logistics. The port facilities in Normandy were not big enough to handle the logistics for a quick win.
I used to like reading Victor’s work, but not in the last few years with analyses such as this. Time and again we see that Politics and Ego trump everything, even if it means losing the war. Patton said it all with these alliances that haunt us to this day - He was right there with his men, so I respect his opinion the most. Fight to win or don’t fight at all. I am convinced he was assassinated as no one wanted to see him back in Washington after the war was over.
True he didn’t win in North Africa until he had an 8 to 1 superiority and had Ultra on his side.
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