Considering the terrain and routes to Germany itself I do not think there is a better alternative to Operation Overlord. The fact that the US was able to overcome the difficulties encountered at Omaha beach, and the ability of the Rangers to scale the cliffs at Pointe Du Hoc show the determination of the American fighting man. The level of casualties is regrettable, unfortunately in war there will always be casualties.
I think there where a lot of mistakes which might have been learnt by the time of Dragoon…
btw, read this about Dragoon, Churchill and his “bigger picture”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Dragoon
…or US terror all over the world?
You what?
There’s no denying that the Yanks can be a major pain in the arse internationally, but in 1944 I completely prefer whatever form of terror you think they were offering to the fascist form they were fighting, as I currently rather prefer whatever forms of terror the Yanks are offering to the Islamo-fascist form of terror they are fighting.
Not a great choice at times because of the clumsiness of Bush the Younger, but still a hands down win for the Yanks.
What?
Winston Churchill wanted to free the Balkans by landing in Greece.
Yup, but I don’t think it would have worked that well. It probably would have drained resources like Italy, and it would have been taken by the Russians eventually… The tanks on both sides wouldn’t have been able to maneuvre, and the German infantry would have made more Gustav-type lines in the mountains.
Um no, that was only a diversion. He actually wanted to go through the “soft underbelly” over the Alps and into Austria…
That never works on the game board. At least I never played against a opponent dumb enough to botch the defense of the mountain ranges. There are not enough large capacity ports and of those that are large enough Marsailles is the only one with good highways and railroads leading north to Germany. The Italian, Greek, Yugoslavian railroads did not have the capacity to support a couple Allied army groups in offensive operations northward. And forgetabout decent automotive highways in those parts.
Once the Allied forces got turfed out of Europe, there really was not any land invasion alternative to an invasion of the French Atlantic coast, other places did have some advantages but had more disadvantages too. That said, more could have been made of the Italian campaign, the whole emphasis in Italy should have been on speed [ once a landing on the Italian mainland had been made ], in that whilst Italy was relatively weekly defended, it is excellent terrain for a defender to engage in positional defense from an enemy advancing from the South, as the country has a central mountain spine which degrades transport from coast to coast and means most rivers and roads run East West and West East , so that any attack on Italy from the South which fails to knock the defenders off balance and keep them off balance, will degenerate in to a series of set piece slogging matches as the defenders fall back on one natural line of defense after another. The only possibility that might have worked would have been if the Allies had been able to knock out a crucial industrial aspect of the German War machine using air-power, in which case they would still have gone for Normandy but had a much easier time of it.
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer
Or maybe you would prefer
The NKVD heroes of Katyn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_Massacre
Or the glorious Red Army’s Liberation of the oppressed Polish Masses in 1939
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland_(1939)
Or the bountyful harvests and happy lives of peasants in the USSR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
Or the restrained and humane manner in which the Soviet Authorities dealt with people who were misguided enough to obstruct the advance of Communism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag
Or the freedom from Hunger which the Great Helmsman Chairman Mao brought to China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chinese_Famine
Or the present day strugglers for freedom for the Arab peoples
http://www.tellthechildrenthetruth.com/
Best and Warm Regards
Adrian Wainer