I have a question too.
How many out there would use spellcheck and/or Strunk & White?
We got to vote about D-Day? I must of missed that in history class.
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A moose bit my sister once...
"How many outhere, if we could do it over again, would vote for invading belgium or holland and cutting off france and their vichey govt(like island hopping)instead of losing all those men on D-day 1944-for France??"
While your 'request for vote' has no historical basis, I do understand your question and request that you research Operation Market Garden to see how bloody such an invasion probably would've been.
A large part of the preparation for D-Day was to feign invasions elsewhere, including Belgium and the Netherlands. Actually invading those areas would've been disastrous for the Allies, as the Nazis had defense networks in place for such invasions.
France wasn't the reason for WW II. However, they are the definition of ingratitude.
Well, considering that my Uncle Richard Hargrove Thoos is still MIA from WWII having been shot down in a B 17 over France, and considering how ungrateful France and Germany are now....... I wonder if he would do it again. Sure he would. But they sure make me ANGRY~
Glenn Beck, God bless him, yesterday was talking about our marine who shot the terrorist the other day. Glenn asked "How many of our soldiers do you think were injured and lay bleeding without any kind of help or care in WWII?" I thought of Richard. It is hard to think of him laying there on the ground, or stuck up in a tree, or whatever happened to him, when his B 17 was shot down. Thank you Glenn Beck for remembering the heroes from WWII.
No, it was not possible. Not in my estimation. We needed the beaches. Further north in the Netherlands, the coastal areas could all be flooded. The path through Italy had the natural barrier of the Alps. Heavy lift capacity as we have today was non-existent. Uncle Joe was not going to let us use anything in the east.
I have replayed the D-Day invasion several times on my Battlefield 1944 PC game and have found much better ways to defeat the Germans. I find the more effective use of Cruise Missles, Apache Helicopters and A-10 Warthogs would have mad a big difference.
Ike was lame.
Invading France as a way to get to Germany and ultimately Berlin was a strategic decision. Coming through France allowed us to invade Germany along a broad front, rather than spearhead type invasions, an example of which was Market Garden.
In my opinion, it's the American thing to do. If we helped Japan and Germany rebuild after they attempted to destroy us, why wouldn't we liberate a known ally regardless of how unappreciative they might be?
2. Belgium and Holland are too close to Germany and therefore would be too easy for the Germans to reinforce.
3. An invading force trying to fight their way into Belgium would have had massive German forces in the Pas de Calais region poised on their right flank -- not an appealing prospect.
4. And if that wasn't enough, the supply lines would have been impossibly long and highly vulnerable to being cut on sea and on land.
It is not D-Day that should have been different, but the post-war reconstruction and governmental structure of France that should have changed. I regret every dime spent on reconstruction in certain parts of Europe, although I understand why we had to do it.
In fact the tactics of war have changed so much that we would never do D-Day that way again. Even back then, we had the ability to insert special forces (if we had anything that could compare) and bomb our way ashore.
The numbers in which we squandered men in that era (not just us, but all armies) was disgracefull and sad.
At the time this route was thought best, because the Netherlands always ran the risk of getting large numbers of troops drowned if the Germand blew the dikes.
Both Ike and FDR wanted to go sooner (i.e., 1943) but we lacked sufficient landing craft. Ike couldn't support both the Italian invasion and the D-Day invasion in terms of landing craft, so he settled for the former and lots of bombing.
If we had tried to "island hop" this, the war would have lasted 2 more years.
U-Boats and minefields. An attack aimed at Holland would have had to cross the North Sea where losses in transit would have been much higher. The Germans also could have used S-boats and other surface craft against the invasion fleet as the covering force was strung out over a much longer distance.
Ports. The invasion fleet had the advantage of launching from the major ports of Plymouth, Southampton and Portsmouth as well as the smaller ports on the channel. For a move east, there were no comparable ports. Harwich is pretty much it.
The greater distance would have required daylight movement of the ships, with the armada likely seen by German aircraft.
Others have pointed out the difficulties of moving inland from the Dutch beaches. Most of Holland was under German control until after the general surrender at the end of the war.