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| quote: | Originally posted by Abject Silver
actually, america's contribution to the war, although definitely significant, wasn't as vital as most people make it out to be. read up enough and you'll come to two realizations - the most important battle in ww2 was in volgograd where there was no american troop in sight.
the second being that the single most important set of operations was not performed by the americans at all. bletchley park (along with great help from the polish intelligence bureau, which sent f.w. winterbotham's division the enigma machines which got them started) was responsible for cracking and the statistical nuiances of breaking the naval enigma cipher used by the germans for daily transmissions. alan turing wasn't singlehandedly responsible for the act, but he certainly was the man that made it happen.
you can talk about normandy and juno beach all you want, but to tell you the truth, if it wasn't for operation bodyguard (established and carried by bletchley park), the entire 3rd (i think) army would have been there instead of in pas-de-calais, and it would've all been lost.
edit @ 9:30 EST all this talk about war is a bit of a toil. it's not a pleasant subject for me. let's not fight. i love you guys  |
Volgograd didn't even exist in 1942/43 ... you mean Stalingrad  . Stalingrad was indeed one of the major turning points in the war, possibly even a theatre turning point, however, it was by no means a turning point for the entire war alone. Here is what I consider to be the primary tactical turning points of the Western Theatre of Operations Europe:
The Battle of Britain: It's loss would have enabled the Luftwaffe to provide massive tactical air support for German ground forces in Operation Sea Lion. The fall of Great Britain would have 'closed' the western front and forestalled any kind of invasion of Europe with the possible exception of a staging area out of North Africa. A corrollary to this effect is that the western front remained active and as such, precious German resources were directed to maintain the Atlantic wall. German factories also began to go underground as allied bombing campaigns intensified. When you take into account the fact that Army Group Center got within the suburbs of Moscow then that diversion of forces was pretty significant. This resulted in the committment of resources to Army Group South which as we all know led to the battle of Stalingrad. Anyway, I digress.
The battle of the Atlantic: You cannot dispute that the longest campaign of the war was not one of the most significant. Considering that half of Britain's food supplies and 2/3 of its raw materials were imported from overseas, Britain came perilously close to capitulation should the wolfpacks have succeeded in blockading Britain. As Churchill stated, the only thing he feared was the battle of the atlantic. Britain's starvation would have likely resulted in the same consequences as the ones I've outlined above.
Battle of Stalingrad, Kurks, and Moscow: Obvious reasons ... any study of WW2 should know this.
Normandy: The opening of the second front ... of which for reasons outlined above reduced the manpower of the eastern front significantly as forces were diverted west. (Yea I'm getting lazy in going into complete detail, lemme know if you want me to)
El Alamein: Not so much a turning point of the entire western theatre, however, it was the first turning point in the ground campaign against Germany. Failure to capture N. Africa would have prevented the opening of the forgotten third front in Italy. Additionally, allied bombing campaigns would have been out of range of the Romanian oil fields which would have likely influenced Hitler's decision to make Army Group South's drive towards the Caucuses so critical.
Actually, most of the tactical turning points in the war were accomplished by Russia. The Americans/Brits/Can did have some decisive military victories (and disasters ... i hate monty) but they only hastened or prolonged the outcome of the war. The majority of the American tactical turning points primarily occurred in the Asia/Pacific Theatre of Operations. But in the end all these events are inexorably linked so you cannot quite separate them and state that that one incident alone achieved victory.
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Retro ...
Last edited by occrider on Sep-04-2003 at 06:41
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