[Publius]

At one of the earliest meetings planning Overlord, Gen. George Marshall met with Sir Winston Churchill, and Churchill urged an invasion into "the soft underbelly of Europe" instead of a French landing. Marshall looked at him in amazement and said, "Good Lord, Winston, are you still trying to justify Gallipoli?!"

It was the last time Churchill would bring up that approach.

[ConorMacNessa]

Yes - I remember that suggestion well from my youthful reading. I was a prodigious reader of American and British History in my youth - with a concentration on WWII.

We will never know if he was right - but somehow I feel that the defenses on France's Mediterranean Coast were not the equal of what we encountered at Normandy.

"I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life.
I am prepared to give my life in their defense."