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To: GOPcapitalist
One is the stalemate in Stalingrad, which personified the collapse of Hitler's push into Russia. One is Midway, which turned the Pacific theater. And one is El Alamein. Those three battles turned the war, Walt.

Those three battles marked the high-water mark of the Axis. Only hind-sight would say that they were "turning points." No one in 1942 thought that the war had turned and over the next 3 years, any number of blunders by the allies or successes by the Axis could have resulted in a very different outcome.

1,021 posted on 11/19/2002 12:15:24 PM PST by Ditto
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To: Ditto
Those three battles marked the high-water mark of the Axis. Only hind-sight would say that they were "turning points."

There was a book years ago called, "Ninety Days that doomed the Axis". The ninety days encompassed the Battle of El Alemein in October, 1942, Stalingrad, which fell in Feburary and Guadalcanal, which the Japs began to evacuate, also in February. But Hitler didn't lose that much at El Alemein -- he didn't have much to lose. After the Allies landed in Northwest Africa, Hitler ordered a big reinforcement of North Africa -- even though he hadn't been able to supply the much smaller Afrika Corps. This was more of his intuition. The Axis lost @ 250,000 troops in NA (lots of Italians though). Really, the surrender at Tunis was a big kicker of a defeat. I think that was like April, 1943.

Walt

1,023 posted on 11/19/2002 12:31:37 PM PST by WhiskeyPapa
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To: Ditto
No one in 1942 thought that the war had turned and over the next 3 years, any number of blunders by the allies or successes by the Axis could have resulted in a very different outcome.

Exactly right.

The Germans had something like 300 infantry divisions. We only had 90.

But ours were larger and better supported. But by early 1945, all our units were committed. There was no slack at all. Great credit goes to General Marshall on settling on that number of infantry divisions. It took 68 weeks for them to go through their training syllabus, so he had to get it right. Of course U.S. units were all lavishly equipped and staffed; the Air Corps lacked for nothing. We also had a very large navy and merchant marine.

Walt

1,026 posted on 11/19/2002 12:36:45 PM PST by WhiskeyPapa
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To: Ditto
Those three battles marked the high-water mark of the Axis. Only hind-sight would say that they were "turning points."

Hindsight is about the only way one could view a turning point beyond speculating something that is yet to happen. But for history's sake, those three battles are where the war turned.

1,027 posted on 11/19/2002 12:37:14 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
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