Posted on 09/28/2008 12:40:20 PM PDT by meandog
9:21 p.m. John McCain kicked the evening off with a wild exaggeration by describing the allied invasion of Normandy as "the greatest invasion" in history. Such historical comparisons are always dangerous. In scale, the D-Day landings were far exceeded by Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, in June 1941, and the Soviet invasion of Germany at the end of World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.washingtonpost.com ...
Wonder if McCain will ask nObama to share his thoughts on D-Day vs. Operation Barbarossa at the next debate?
Nice to know who they’re rooting for. He said “greatest”, not the largest. Barbarossa and the Soviet couterattack weren’t amphibious landings, either.
While the Operation Barbarossa (Hitler’s invasion of Russia) and Soviet late war operation against Germany were impressive; neither operation was an amphibious one against an entrenched enemy. McCain’s claim is generally regarded by many miltary historians as correct. That D-Day IS the greatest invasion in history is undeniable, considering the scope, coordination and breaching of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall.
@$$hat....
It was the greatest, and probably the last, large scale amphibious assault in history.
Wa Compost: McCain always lies, Bammy always tells the truth. Socialism is good. Communism is better. Capitalism is evil, yada yada ,,,
You can’t expect warmed over hippies and their spawn to know the difference between an invasion and a campaign. Although a case could be made for classifying Overlord as an opposed landing, rather than an invasion.
I guess being the greatest invasion for the free world isn’t enough for these ant-American pieces of S==T!
The Washington Pravda.
I trust you are referring to Michael Dobbs of the Washington Post rather than to me...
LOL I forgot in todays world you have to explain that you are talking about the good guys.
What a world. America is dying folks. Welcome to the coming OBAMANATION. Prepare to do your time on the PLANTATION of Barak and Michelle Obama.
And I wouldn't put a Nazi invasion in the category of "greatest", no matter how large it was...
That's disgusting.
Another jihadijournalist drugs himself on truth serum, straps on the talking points and blows up his cred and that of his MSM org (if he/they ever had one) in support of 0.
Also, Hitler knew that he had convinced Stalin that Stalin’s own spies were lying when they told “Uncle Joe” the exact date Barbarossa would begin.
Sorry, but I'm getting sick of these traitors.
And Stalin, Hitler and Mao were MUCH better leaders of their country. Gee, John - you didn’t know that?!
Thanks for making that point, the problems associated with landing 1/100th of of either of the land operations numbers amphibiously while opposed is way greater than that of either Barbarossa or the Russian Spring offensive cycles.
Good One!
The Washington Post - picking nits that other Americans won’t pick
ahhh yes!... Operation Barbarossa,... when Hollywood and Liberals became Patriotic; they had to Mother Russia had been attacked.
The Washington Post has a long running affection for the Soviet Empire. When it was argued that America had given more lives in combat service to other countries, the Post came out with an editorial denoting the Soviet sacrifices in WWII far exceeded the American casualty count. Ergo, we should see the Soviet Stalin as the great sacrificial humanitarian not any American president.
Its amazing that these things called newspapers still publish.
He even got his facts wrong. Overlord was a 2.8 million man operation. Barbarossa was 3 million. So numerically, it was pretty close. But McCain didn't say "largest," although it was probably that too, once nonhuman elements (ships,planes, all kinds of supplies) are factored in.
Everybody knows what McCain meant. He was talking about amphibious operations.
How did that nazi invasion of Russia turn out anyhow?
I think McCain was making reference to a successful invasion.
It is however, worth remembering that during the D-Day landings, the allies had total air and naval superiority and they were fighting against forces that were for the most part, the dregs of the German Army. Those too old, ill, or green to fight on the Eastern Front, which was the front which had top priority for the Nazis. Both the Germans and the Russians were throwing the best they had at each other....
WAPO: “Hitler did it better”
bah
The Posties know that (one must presume).
Easily the greatest seaborne invasion in history, which is more of less implied.
They left out Jengis Khan overruning New Haven on Christmas Day 1968, while President Reagan lied to the American people about weapons of mass destruction in Nazi Germany, as Joe Biden would be glad to point out.
It (the Normandy invasion) would have been dwarfed by Olympic and Downfall, the operations planned for the invasion of Japan in late 1945 and early 1946, but fortunately for all concerned, President Truman rendered those invasions moot through the use of advanced technology.
McCain brought it up only as context for the story of General Eisenhower writing two letters the night before the invasion. One praising the valor of the troops (to be read if the operation were successful) and one resigning his command, should the mission fail, which was quite possible. McCain used this as an illustration of accountability, something he lamented had been lost with most in government 'service' as well as in private business. I can't argue with him.
The Washington CommiePost ignored McCain's broader point (accountability) in order to nitpick about the size of the Normandy invasion. Petty and transparently antagonistic. I can't wait until these lefty dinosaur rags finally go out of business from lack of readers and advertisers for their vacuous twaddle.
The Russian operation was not a military invasion. It was part of a continuing follow-up campaign of pursuit of fleeing forces characterized by both armies having been in constant contact.
D-Day was an invasion, characterized by the need to establish a beachhead in an enemy-fortified mainland in which one goes from no contact with the enemy to immediate contact. Literally, they went from zero presence to a huge beachhead in the matter of a month.
And no doubt The Post will find evidence that D-Day wasn’t also “The Longest Day.”
Anything to bash America, past or present.
I’m sure the author sent off a nasty letter to Tom Brokaw demanding that he change the title of his book:
“To the attention of Mr. Brokaw:
In the interests of accuracy, I strongly recommend that you change the title of your recent book The Greatest Generation.
Statistically, the generation of children born between 1980 and 1990 was the largest ever recorded, so therefore the title of your book is inaccurate and must be changed.
Very Truly Yours,
Michael Dobbs,
Dimbulb-without-portfolio,
Washingtonpost.com”
Michael Dobbs:
Why don’t you get your “patriotic” pal Nine Percent Nancy to continue her Hiroshima tour and visit the graveyards of Normandy?
Then get back with us, ok?
Thanks for fact-checking the fact-checker...He seems to want to point out that Hitler's 3 million also went in to Russia in one felled swoop...
Pravda on the Potomac shoots itself in the foot once again.
WaPo referencing a Nazi invasion as “the greatest”. Figures. Their sympathies are with the national socialists.
BUT, considering the British debacle at Galipolli in WWI and the failed Dieppe raid it was a HUGE GAMBLE which I believe that neither the Soviets or Russians could have pulled off, even had either had a navy to do it with...neither had the amphibious warfare experience of either America or Britian.
I though it was satire, and then I went to the link. You can’t make this stuff up. If McCain said “This is still the greatest country in the world,” would this “fact checker” say, “Actually, Sweden has a higher life expectancy . . . .”?
DDay was a sea land invasion —much much harder than any land invasion
And Dobbs’s expertise is ?????
So Operation Barbarossa was the greatest invasion in history. So how did THAT work out?
I wish the Washington Post/Daily Worker would step up its factfinding mission on locating those 57 states and splain to me how FDR addressed the Nation on TV in 29.
In sheer #’s of ships, aircraft, men etc D DAY 6JUN44 was the greatest AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION.
Those 2 mental midgets just shoot from the lip and NO ONE really gives a rats arse what comes out..except of course US but then again it is preaching to the choir...
Considering the overwhelming material and logistical advantages the allies enjoyed on D-Day, the German Blitzkriegs in the early part of the war were ‘greater’ in scope and achievement with what was available vs the forces they faced.
Part of this Blitzkrieg involved the successful airborne/amphibious conquest of Norway, despite lacking the total air and naval dominance enjoyed by the allies on D-Day, nor the time to plan it that Monty and the other commanders had....
To say the WaPo is fish-wrap is an insult to rotten fish!
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