Posted on 06/06/2015 10:07:55 AM PDT by PROCON
Few narrative historians have been able to capture the essence of war quite like Stephen Ambrose. The Eisenhower biographer published several books on the war later in his life, including Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, and perhaps the best one volume treatment of the Normandy invasion, D-Day: June 6, 1944.
One theme running through all of those books was the sheer ordinariness of the American GI and how, when confronted by the greatest challenges of their lives, outperformed, outfought, and outsmarted the seemingly invincible Nazi war machine.
From a blurb advertising D-Day:
They wanted to be throwing baseballs, not hand grenades, shooting .22s at rabbits, not M-1s at other men. But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought. They were soldiers of democracy. They were the men of D-Day. When Hitler declared war on the United States, he bet that the young men brought up in the Hitler Youth would outfight the youngsters brought up in the Boy Scouts.,p>
Hitler lost, largely because “the Boy Scouts had been taught to figure their way out of their own problems,” writes Ambrose. Americans were trained to use their own initiative and not blindly follow orders, like the Germans. This proved decisive on Omaha Beach, as nothing went as planned, and the first and second waves of the landings were being slaughtered. And then, one by one — mostly NCO’s — began to realize that staying put was death andthey began a slow, painful climb up the bluffs. There was no mass charge, but rather small groups of two and three soldiers taking it upon themselves to get the job done.
Ambrose points out that never could have happened in the German army.
In an interview on Brian Lamb’s C-Span show Booknotes, Ambrose expanded on this theme:
LAMB: Why was it a great day?
AMBROSE: You know, you can’t exaggerate it. You can’t overstate it. It was the pivot point of the 20th century. It was the day on which the decision was made as to who was going to rule in this world in the second half of the 20th century. Is it going to be Nazism, is it going to be communism, or are the democracies going to prevail? If we would have failed on Omaha Beach and on the other beaches on the 6th of June in 1944, the struggle for Europe would have been a struggle between Hitler and Stalin, and we would have been out of it. If Stalin had won, the Iron Curtain would have been on the English Channel. If Hitler had won, I don’t think he would have been able to take Britain, at least not in the immediate future, but he would have gone all the way to the Urals. Hitler’s plan was to turn the problem of conquering America over to the next generation, utilizing the resources that he intended to have as a part of the greater German Reich as a result of victory. It really did turn on getting ashore and penetrating that Atlantic Wall. Now, once that Atlantic Wall was penetrated and we had a beachhead and you could begin to move from England into the continent, this tremendous outpouring of America’s factories that we had managed to get over to England by winning the battle of the Atlantic in 1943, if you penetrated the Atlantic Wall then it was no longer a question of who was going to win. It was when is the end going to come. Germany could not possibly prevail against — but if Rommel stopped them cold on the beaches — this was an all-or-nothing operation. Eisenhower, when he took command in January of 1944, said, “This operation is being planned as a success. There are no contingency plans.” Had they stopped him — and they came very close to stopping him — we would not have been able to mount another operation in 1944. This was Hitler’s great chance to win the war — stop them in June of 1944 on the Atlantic coast, then he can move 11 panzer divisions to the east. Eleven panzer divisions might well have swung the balance on the eastern front, or they might have had another effect. They might have led Stalin to conclude, “Those blankety-blank capitalists. They’re up to their old tricks. They’re going to fight till the last Red Army soldier. To hell with that. I’m going to cut a deal with my friend Adolph again, just like we did in 1939. We’ll divide Eastern Europe between us.” That wouldn’t have lasted. Sooner or later they would have clashed, but the democracies wouldn’t have been in on it anymore.
I’m surprised that D-Day is trending on Twitter given the ignorance of the past couple of generations about the significance of June 6. But those of us old enough to remember when commemorating D-Day was a big deal, should take the responsibility for passing on the feelings that all of America experienced that day, summed up in Eisenhower’s D-Day address to the troops, and FDR’s heartfelt prayer.
Nowadays, Boy Scouts vs. Muslim youth.
Who wins? And why?
Each war - since Roosevelt put communists in the State Dept, WH and DOD - and since Truman left them there and promoted others - we have lost in Washington, the State Dept and DOD.
We would have just nuked them repeatedly in late 45 with the Russians still out by Warsaw or even Smolensk. Maybe the Nazis would have still been holding Romania. Also, the landing in Southern France was still on for August 44. It would have been WW1 all over again.
Huh, really? Those Nazi automatons couldn't even load their weapons without someone flipping the correct switch on the back of their coal scuttles, I suppose. And from a guy who claims to be an expert on WW2!
But then again, he also thinks America would have shrugged and sat out the rest of the war if D-Day didn't work out.
Where the forces of Liberty defeated the forces of Tyranny was at the Top Level- when it was obvious that the Allies were landing, Hitler was asleep and everybody on his staff were afraid to wake him up. On the other hand, President Roosevelt had little to nothing to do with the D-day invasion (Winston Churchill had only a little more) and General Eisenhower's easiest work day was June 6, when D-Day actually happened.
In a Totalitarian regime, everyone's afraid of the dictator and a wrong move could lead to imprisonment or death for you and your family. In a society based on Liberty, even the lowliest Private can lead large groups of men in desperate battle against a fierce enemy...and be rewarded for it.
The Uberlibs and LBGTQs have conquered and corrupted the Scouts. What outcome do you foresee?
When the Soviets and Americans met at the Elbe at the end of WWII, the Soviets were astounded that an American 1st Lieutenant had as much authority as a Soviet colonel.
In 1994, I was in boot camp with a Russian emigre' who was drafted into the Soviet Army in the mid-1980's. He told me that the Sergeants had no real authority at all, and it was the Officers who were giving the orders. Of course, in the US Army, the E-5's, 6's, and 7's are the backbone.
The outcome has already happened before our very eyes.
While the OKW command structure was centralized under Hitler, when it came to small unit tactics the Germans were excelled. I’ve known dozens of WW2 vets who flat out told me “You never got anything from the Krauts unless they were ready to give it up’’. On the offensive the Germans hit hard and fast and when they encountered heavy resistance, especially in a fortified or fixed position they surrounded it , cut it off and kept moving, leaving the infantry to deal with it. As their fortunes changed they believed in defense in depth and whenever and where ever possible always counter attacked.
Unfortunately, the Muslims. Given the continuing emasculation of the Boy (now Gay) Scouts, all that will be learned in the BS "is" stuff more appropriately taught to Girl Scouts.
...and my eyes are water filled.
Rommel would have stopped us. Rommel was a truly bad-@as SOB war fighter, and he knew what he was doing.
So, God took out Rommel via Hitler’s insanity.
Lots and lots of lawsuits filed against BSA and criminal charges filed against their leaders once the country once it becomes sane again.
Lots and lots of lawsuits filed against BSA and criminal charges filed against their leaders once the country becomes sane again.
I believe ultimately, WWII was won by American Exceptionalism and Divine Providence.
Let us take that one step further....into the mendacious and disreputable Ms. Bill Clinton's recent vicious propaganda...anyone under the age of 35 probably knows little or knows not at all the Clinton history from Arkansas to the White House and beyond, especially Hillary's shadowy grabs for wealth and power....by making sordid and vile accusations about those who are exposing her and of course the GOP, Libertarians and other conservatives.
thanks..
Today’s boy scouts are being transformed into the Hitler’s youth of the Obama generation.
About the only thing that would have caused Allied failure at Normandy was the weather.
Especially the higher level leaders with personal liability lawsuits coming long before any criminal action. This is not a case of possibly innocent supervisory error, as it was with the RC Church letting the wrong people in to run youth programs and often discovering after the fact what those homosexuals did. Rather, it’s a case of the highest leadership of the organization deliberately compelling the penetration in the face of the strongest warnings and clear knowledge of what the homosexuals had done to the RC Church.
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