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| Into the face of heavy German fire, June 6, 1944 |
I disagree - these are empty, unthinking platitudes from people who don't understand how the war progressed and was won (or maybe it's just lazy, sloppy reporting). While the outcome was not yet assured in June 1944, the course of the war was settled long before the first landing craft hit the Normandy beaches. The course of the war was planned and agreed upon by the Allies many months before, as our leaders met on ships off Newfoundland and in the desert at Casablanca.
WWII was conducted in two parts - Europe and the Pacific - and 1942 was a bleak, dark year for the Allies in both theaters. The almost universally acknowledged pivotal event of the Pacific War occurred before the peak of summer - the Japanese disaster at Midway. After that, the ultimate defeat of Japan was inevitable, even though that outcome was something viewed from a distance and wasn't obvious to most participants at the time.
In the West by that fall, the Americans also joined the continuing Allied action against the Axis in North Africa. Allied efforts drove Rommel's vaunted Afrika Corps into the Mediterranean in 1943. Then the Americans and the British went on to Sicily and Italy, driving the Italians and Germans ever northward before them in a long, relentless and hotly fought campaign. After North Africa's defeats in 1942-43, the Germans never had any lasting victories again and the Italians closed up shop early.
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| During the war, a Liberty ship was completed by an American shipyard about every 42 days. |
During that time and peaking in 1944-45, the American industrial behemoth was cranking up - American steel, American manufacturing and American transport made the massive war-making efforts possible on a global, multi-front basis and scale. It helped supply the British, it helped supply the Russians, Canadians and the Chinese, and ultimately it supplied the needs of the increasingly involved American Army, Marines and Navy.* The invasion of North Africa, increasing Allied dominance in the North Atlantic and the turn-around in Russia, all fueled by American industrial might, these are the things that changed the course of the fight in the European theater.
*At the same time, Soviet industrial output was not insignificant. Especially toward the latter years of the war, Russian production exceeded that of Germany in many respects. But none of them could match what American industry could build and deliver, not even close. We built what was needed, and with the help of our allies, we delivered it where it was needed.
In the end, the war in Europe could not have been won without the Russians; it is largely true that World War II was won on the backs of the Russian people and they are justly proud of how they held, and then completely stopped and destroyed the Germans on Russian soil, before driving them all the way back to Berlin. It also could not have been won without the British and the Americans, the Australians and every other nation, people and resistance movement that contributed to the Allied war effort.
But "the battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They [the battles] were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life [both civilian and military] variously due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres." [Wikipedia]. The West owes a huge debt of thanks to the people of the former Soviet Union for what they did, and for what they sacrificed, during those years.
The war could not have been won without American industrial might. It could not have been won without the massive successes of Allied air power - the strategic bombing campaign had more detrimental effects on German war-making ability than anyone realized at the time.
Had we known what to hit sooner, we might have been able to end the war months earlier than we did; but the most crippling blows were not understood at the time - those specifically against German transportation systems, energy sources and synthetic fuel plants and depots. General Spaatz apparently understood this, but many other strategic planners did not. Allied air operations between autumn 1943 and D-day virtually neutralized the German air force - and almost completely prevented them from attacking the landing beaches on June 6th. Our invasion would very likely have failed had it been opposed by the second-to-none Luftwaffe as it existed in 1943.
D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans in the west. German decisions and actions subsequent to the invasion hastened that end and assured its inevitability. But that end was already underway from the Russian thrust in the east and from the Allied efforts in the Med.
I would never discount the monumental undertaking that was D-Day -- nor the courage and sacrifice of the ones who prosecuted it. It was a necessary step. It was a huge risk and in the end, a huge success. It was the greatest sea-borne invasion in history, before or since, and a massive undertaking almost beyond comprehension.
But it was not the turning point. Instead, D-Day was a critical step along the way to a carefully-planned outcome made possible by events (victories) that had already occurred. If you want to pinpoint them, German failure to defeat England in 1940, the reversal of German fortunes in the North Atlantic, Rommel's defeat in North Africa and Russia's offensives causing the steady defeat and withdrawal of German forces from Soviet soil beginning in December 1942, these were the watershed moments, the "turning points."
In honor of the Allied soldiers and sailors and their officers, and our great nations, whose steadfast resolve, dedication and bravery won the greatest war ever fought, against two truly evil empires. I hope we never forget what they accomplished and at what cost.
*At the same time, Soviet industrial output was not insignificant. Especially toward the latter years of the war, Russian production exceeded that of Germany in many respects. But none of them could match what American industry could build and deliver, not even close. We built what was needed, and with the help of our allies, we delivered it where it was needed.
In the end, the war in Europe could not have been won without the Russians; it is largely true that World War II was won on the backs of the Russian people and they are justly proud of how they held, and then completely stopped and destroyed the Germans on Russian soil, before driving them all the way back to Berlin. It also could not have been won without the British and the Americans, the Australians and every other nation, people and resistance movement that contributed to the Allied war effort.
But "the battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They [the battles] were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life [both civilian and military] variously due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres." [Wikipedia]. The West owes a huge debt of thanks to the people of the former Soviet Union for what they did, and for what they sacrificed, during those years.
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| 8th AF B-17 over Marienburg, Germany |
Had we known what to hit sooner, we might have been able to end the war months earlier than we did; but the most crippling blows were not understood at the time - those specifically against German transportation systems, energy sources and synthetic fuel plants and depots. General Spaatz apparently understood this, but many other strategic planners did not. Allied air operations between autumn 1943 and D-day virtually neutralized the German air force - and almost completely prevented them from attacking the landing beaches on June 6th. Our invasion would very likely have failed had it been opposed by the second-to-none Luftwaffe as it existed in 1943.
D-Day was the beginning of the end for the Germans in the west. German decisions and actions subsequent to the invasion hastened that end and assured its inevitability. But that end was already underway from the Russian thrust in the east and from the Allied efforts in the Med.
I would never discount the monumental undertaking that was D-Day -- nor the courage and sacrifice of the ones who prosecuted it. It was a necessary step. It was a huge risk and in the end, a huge success. It was the greatest sea-borne invasion in history, before or since, and a massive undertaking almost beyond comprehension.
But it was not the turning point. Instead, D-Day was a critical step along the way to a carefully-planned outcome made possible by events (victories) that had already occurred. If you want to pinpoint them, German failure to defeat England in 1940, the reversal of German fortunes in the North Atlantic, Rommel's defeat in North Africa and Russia's offensives causing the steady defeat and withdrawal of German forces from Soviet soil beginning in December 1942, these were the watershed moments, the "turning points."
In honor of the Allied soldiers and sailors and their officers, and our great nations, whose steadfast resolve, dedication and bravery won the greatest war ever fought, against two truly evil empires. I hope we never forget what they accomplished and at what cost.
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