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Why WWII Didn't End Sooner
Townhall.com ^ | June 11, 2015 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 06/11/2015 6:12:28 AM PDT by Kaslin

Seventy-one years ago, the British, Canadians and Americans landed on the Normandy beaches to open a second ground front against Nazi Germany.

Operation Overlord -- the Allied invasion of Western Europe -- proved the largest amphibious operation in military history, dwarfing even Xerxes' Persian invasion of Greece in 480 B.C.

Brilliant planning, overwhelming naval support, air superiority and high morale ensured the successful landing of 160,000 troops on the first day -- at a cost of about 4,000 dead.

Three weeks after the June 6 landings, nearly a million Allied soldiers were ashore, heading eastward through France. Hitler's once-formidable Third Reich seemed on the verge of collapse. On the Eastern Front, the German army was imploding under the weight of 5 million advancing infantrymen of Russia's Red Army. At the same time, Allied four-engine bombers, with superb long-range fighter escorts, at last were beginning to destroy German transportation and fuel infrastructure.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: dday; eisenhower; hitler; normandy; patton; worldwarii
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To: Kaslin

Because Selma hadn’t happened yet?


21 posted on 06/11/2015 6:43:34 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie; All
WWII was so vast and complex you could argue about that forever.

So true! It is fascinating and amazing how the reverbations of WWII are echoing around us even to this day.
22 posted on 06/11/2015 6:43:55 AM PDT by notdownwidems (Washington DC has become the enemy of free people everywhere)
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To: abb

Quite likely that the more daring Patton could have prevented the partition of Germany, or at least left a smaller E Germany.

Especially if Ditka was driving.


23 posted on 06/11/2015 6:44:02 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
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To: notdownwidems

aka WWI part II.


24 posted on 06/11/2015 6:48:51 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Timocrat
That was not MacArthur's, remember there was divided command between the Navy and the Army in the Pacific. Each had their zones of responsibility. I do note however that you do not refute the “political” charge. Holding back Patton so the Soviets could take Eastern Europe was a political, not a military decision. As was Sicily and holding Patton in reserve in England on D-Day and . . . .
25 posted on 06/11/2015 6:49:53 AM PDT by ricmc2175
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To: Ready4Freddy
Quite likely that the more daring Patton could have prevented the partition of Germany, or at least left a smaller E Germany.

Probably not. The partition of Germany had been settled at Yalta the year before.

26 posted on 06/11/2015 6:53:35 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Kaslin

it is what it is...... no amount of Wednesday morning quarterbacking will change the facts


27 posted on 06/11/2015 6:57:18 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: Timber Rattler
Bradley despised Montgomery and lost his command because of it.

Bradley was also contemptuous of Patton as well. In his third volume on World War II, Rick Atkinson talks about all the U.S. senior commanders in Europe and the reality is that they weren't an outstanding group of individuals. Between the personality issues and the army commanders in over their head and the political give and take it probably added immensely to the casualties.

28 posted on 06/11/2015 7:02:26 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: Kaslin
In an unwise move, Eisenhower in early September had diverted gasoline and ammunition from the American sector to Montgomery's theater. Montgomery, in a risky gambit, planned to leapfrog across the Rhine from Holland into the German Ruhr Valley, hoping to paralyze Germany's industrial heartland and end the war outright.

The result, however, was the disastrous Operation Market Garden, or "A Bridge Too Far," catastrophe.

If only, my military acumen been used wisely, instead of being wasted by
mediocre men of lesser ability - men harboring political aspirations - the
war would have ended much sooner than it did ... with a great savings in
lives and materials.

In August 1944 Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, commanding the 12th U.S. Army Group, abruptly halted the advance of the XV Corps of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army.

The Mysterious Death of Gen. George S. Patton

29 posted on 06/11/2015 7:05:33 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: US Navy Vet
Because the WEAK CinCs Ike and Generals Bradley

You're being too hard on Eisenhower. He had to deal with a bunch of Prima Donnas in Montgomery, Patton and De Gaulle and the various allied politicians. Patton was lucky to retain his command after the slapping incidents and Eisenhower and Bradley went out on a limb insisting that Patton assume command of the Third army. Eisenhower wrote at the time

"If this thing ever gets out, they'll be howling for Patton's scalp, and that will be the end of Georgie's service in this war. I simply cannot let that happen. Patton is indispensable to the war effort – one of the guarantors of our victory."

30 posted on 06/11/2015 7:06:31 AM PDT by Timocrat (Ingnorantia non excusat)
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To: Timocrat

Iwo Jima was not under MacArthur but under Nimitz.


31 posted on 06/11/2015 7:09:39 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: bert

I guess, too, that if America hadn’t developed the atomic bomb, & Truman hadn’t had the guts to use it, Japan would have fought on Japanese soil to the last woman & child with broomsticks killing many more thousands of Allied troops.

Troop carriers were on their way to Japan when Truman dropped the bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. - Their commanding officers lined them up and told them, “Look to your left & then to your right. When we land, two out of the three of you will die.” - Those boys were, frankly, relieved when they heard Truman had bombed Japan.


32 posted on 06/11/2015 7:12:47 AM PDT by Twinkie (John 3:16)
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

A respectable argument could be made that WWII was the final act in a three act play; i.e. the Franco Prussian War; WWI and WWII.


33 posted on 06/11/2015 7:13:09 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: Timocrat
Hardly. The Marines alone lost 7,000 men taking Iwo Jima.

And we lost more than 12,500 during Operation Iceberg, the capture of Okinawa.

34 posted on 06/11/2015 7:13:30 AM PDT by ScottinVA (The election of Obama was a hate crime.)
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To: Kaslin
Why WWII Didn't End Sooner


Because the Germans went ahead and bombed Pearl Harbor!!

35 posted on 06/11/2015 7:22:09 AM PDT by JRios1968 (I'm guttery and trashy, with a hint of lemon. - Laz)
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To: Twinkie

In June of 1961, I enrolled at NC State as a sophomore. I attended an assembly for incoming students and a lecture by the chancellor.

He admonished us to look to your left and then to your right. Two of the three will not graduate

(he also said that one of the most important things you must do each day is to take a crap)


36 posted on 06/11/2015 7:23:06 AM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: Timber Rattler

Eisenhower despised Montgomery as did Patton as did Bradley as did just about every American commander. Ultimately, especially after Market Garden, Eisenhower had enough and put it on the line to Churchill, either Monty goes or he goes. Churchill was ready to cut Monty loose. Monty got wind of it and got on his knees asking for Ike’s forgiveness. This was a blow to Monty’s ego who went on, post war, to ravage Ike as a poor choice for CINC because he had never held a battlefield command.

Anyway, the entire way Monty had to be handled with kid gloves it is yet another classic lesson of what happens when politics and military planning mix. In short, they don’t.


37 posted on 06/11/2015 7:23:44 AM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: rbg81

unconditional surrender


38 posted on 06/11/2015 7:23:53 AM PDT by JeanLM (Obama proves melanin is just enough to win elections)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

Thanks for the post.


39 posted on 06/11/2015 7:24:35 AM PDT by gr8eman (Don't waste your energy trying to understand commies. Use it to defeat them!)
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To: Kaslin
Thanks Kaslin good article

"U.S. Gen. George S. Patton -- in the doghouse for the slapping of ill GIs a year earlier"

They should have punished Patton by making him stay at the front.....

40 posted on 06/11/2015 7:24:37 AM PDT by virgil283 (When the sun spins, the cross appears, and the skies burn red)
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