Hitler's Sea Wall Is Breached, Invaders Fighting Way Inland; New Allied Landings Are Made

NYT ^ | June 7 1944 | AP

[Hazzardgate]

SPOILER WARNING!

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Germany loses.

[Henchster]

Actually, they end up winning. They get rid of an evil dictator, and now have a decent country. (by current low standards!)

[Rodney King]

I love the headline in the upper left. "Country in Prayer".

Today it would read "Right-Wing Christians Exploiting Situation to Promote their Agenda!"

[nutmeg]

You are so right! Sad, isn't it?

[swarthyguy]

Would you know where to find a picture of Reagan with his thumbs in his ears, hand spread taking on some heckler? It was a newswire shot. And printed in a paper.

[rageaholic]

REMEMBER THIS GENERATION WHEN THE NEXT GOVERNMENT IDIOT SAYS WE CAN'T STOP TERRORISTS OR MAKE ENOUGH SECURITY EQUIPMENT

[abner]

Victory!!!!

[Lib-Lickers 2]

is there a web site that anyone knows of that has all the NYTs since the paper started?,, in college they had micro film of every edition ,, even the paper inserts and ads,, any national paper?

[elbucko]

Bless 'em all!

[GopherIt]

Thanks for this one!

[John H K]

It's unfortunate that the Normandy invasion didn't take place in 1943 as it should have...instead, lives were wasted slogging up Italy.

[swarthyguy]

Like those airline baggage checkers - pressurised etc? Heard that on TV; seemed odd because we could if we really wanted do. The rate of the liberty ships was what after the assembly yards got cranking? Not to mention tanks and planes and whatnot? How many commercial airports are there? Some hubs are huge and would need a lot of machines and backups but still....

It's like when FBIDir said 2000 flight schools could not have been checked out individually.

[swarthyguy]

Any books you can recommend on why that was? Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin had their own agendas going with Yugoslavia as well. The soft underbelly of Europe. Wasn't soft at all.

[WDG55513]

Good post. Bump.

[John H K]

There IS an excellent book (read in college) on it that I can't remember the title of, unfortunately. Whole book lays out a case for a Normandy 1943 invasion. I initially read it assuming it would be sort of a joke but I actually came away converted (haven't relied on it solely for my opinion, of course)

Basically:

1) German military production PEAKED in 1944....they were producing more weapons then than in 1943.

2) German military strength in France was FAR higher in 1944 than 1943.

3) The coastal defenses of "Fortress Europa" (including Omaha Beach) were basically unfinished in 1943.

4) The standard British excuse (as I suspect you know, the Americans were gung-ho to invade France in 43, the British desperately didn't want to) explanation was "Lack of amphibious shipping." However, for the Sicily Invasion, there were MORE British and US invasions simultaneously afloat than for Normandy! Of course, EVENTUALLY the Normandy invasion was larger once you include follow-on forces but there was no shortage of amphibious shipping in 1943...if you look at the first day, Sicily actually was of comparable size to Normandy.

5) The Italian campaign was conducted in horrible terrain. The Germans were able to hold the Italian peninsula and slowly retreat while using a fairly trivial portion of their total ground forces.

[swarthyguy]

Churchill not wanting to go afer Germany til the Soviets and Germany had both bled more? And Dulles in Switzerland and Yugoslavia in play, intrigues all around. Sicily is never talked about in logistical glory like Normandy. I did not know what you stated about it being the same size in terms of shipping/amphibious as Dday.

The other conventional argument is Churchill's fears due to Gallipoli but if the defense were still being improved by Rommel then that doesn't hold water too well.