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Originally posted by Burkeman1:

"We did not win WWII one our own at all. The bulk of the fighting was done by the Soviets. The Western front was an after thought to Germans in their war plans. The ever glorified "Battle of the Bulge" - does not even merit any comparison to any of the Major or even middling Soviet- German engagements on the Eastern front. The Germans had a fraction of their forces arrayed against the Allies on D-Day that they had on the Eastern Front."

I would agree that most Americans do not have any concept as to the battles and losses suffered by the Germans and Soviets on the Eastern Front in WWII. The US did not win WWII in the European theatre by ourselves (but did in the Pacific theatre) as many believe. Battles like Kursk overshadow the "Battle of the Bulge" in sheer size and scope. However, the myth that in 1944 most of the German Army (to include the Waffen-SS) were on the Eastern Front is due to the German practice of "re-structuring" the size of their field divisions to reflect available manpower due to combat losses. In short, the number of divisions stayed the same, but the size of each division shrank. The percentage of the total available 347 German combat divisions that were deployed to the Eastern Front in June 1944 was a still high 57%, but this represented only 40% of the German Army manpower available. This was a substantial decrease from the 72% of German Army manpower previously deployed to the Eastern Front in June of 1943. The Allied fronts in Italy and France did remove substantial forces from the Eastern front by June of 1944. Hitler's 'Enron accounting' with division strengths allowed him to continue to believe that he fielded the same Army as in mid-1942/1943.

Number of divisions available for these countries over the course of the war:

Country	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943	1944	1945	End of War
France	86	105	0	0	5	7	14	14
Germany*	78	189	235	261	327	347	319	375
Great Britain	9	34	35	38	39	37	31	31
Italy	6	73	64	89	86	2	9	10
Poland	43	2	2	2	2	5	5	5
Romania	11	28	33	31	33	32	24	24
USSR	194	200	220	250	350	400	488	491
USA**	8	24	39	76	95	94	94	94

*towards the end of the war, many of these divisions were either incomplete or poorly equipped
**including both Army and Marine divisions and accounting for the Pacific theater

Location Of German Divisions In June Of Each Year

Country	1941	1942	1943	1944
USSR	34	171	179	157
France, Belgium & Holland	38	27	42	56
Norway & Finland	13	16	16	16
Balkans	7	8	17	20
Italy	0	0	0	22
Denmark	1	1	2	3
North Africa	2	3	0	0

Percentage Of German Forces On The Eastern Front Each Year

Unit	1941	1942	1943	1944
Divisions	67%	75%	60%	57%
Troops	84%	74%	72%	40%
Aircraft	64%	65%	42%	45%

Source: WWII in Europe: WWII Statistics

dvwjr

WAIT A COTTON-PICKING MINUTE!

History recalls that the US and Brits fought Germans in Africa, Mid-east, Greece, Malta, France, Britain, Italy, Baltic States, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and Germany. We also fought Japan throughout the enitre Pacific theater including Alaska, colonial insurgents in India/Burma/Indonesia/Indochina, and of course the Vichy-French. How many theaters do you count? How many armies and navies did we face?

IMO, your position is what the commies and Nazis always said after the war. And IMO, it was BS then and it is an unfortunate mistake on your part now.

I largely agree with your post. Hitler did divert major resources from the Eastern Front even before D-Day to France and to Italy. The German forces our rookie troops later encountered in the hedge rows of Normandy were battle hardened veterans of the eastern front.

Good post.