Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

I would not worry too much about what ignorants like Yankeepapa6 write. They don't really know or understand history and they have a very perverted view of it. You should actually be proud to have fought so people like Yankeepapa6 would have the right to write the things he did.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

My father is alive and fought in the war and is still active and is out all over the place and at home still maintains a garden of 200 by 50 feet.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

Yeah. Someone else on a previous post had an issue with Gerald R. Ford having a Carrier named after him. Unfortunately, I have nothing to do with the naming. The Pentagon makes those decisions.

machia Loc: NJ

With all due respect , if the United States did not enter the war , we would all be probably speaking German today .
I wore the uniform and have studied WW2 history for close to 40 years . This is my opinion . I respect yours and know that the English fought with everything they had , but it was a combination of bad decisions on the part of the Germans and help , material and manpower , from the USA that eventually crushed the Germans and Japanese .
Actually it was the actions of all the Allies that defeated the Axis , but without the USA , the war would have been lost .
The best that could have been hoped for would have been a treaty with the Germans and Japanese , placating their desire for more land and control of the Western Pacific .
The American Lend Lease saved the UK and the USSR in more ways than one .
Again this is only my opinion , and I respect yours .

Yankeepapa6 Loc: New York City

It's best not to mention the bang-up job France and England did in WW1 before the US had to bail them out.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Totally agree. If you study history of WWII were it not for the USA the British and Soviets would have lost. That is why we were called the arsenal of freedom.

Yankeepapa6 Loc: New York City

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

The Soviets were still on foot and had tanks. The trucks provided by the USA allowed for a mobile infantry that could keep up with tanks and the trucks from the USA allowed towed artillery to be quickly moved for support as well. The Germans had never faced this similar mobility until this point and were unprepared for it. All thanks to the USA and our supply ships to Murmansk and Archangel.

machia Loc: NJ

Don’t forget what happened in November 1941 . As approaching German troops in Army Group Central had the lights of the Moscow suburbs in their sights , Hitler ordered them to swing South to help mop up the Ukraine . Moscow was for the taking . The government were fleeing . When Army Group Central swung back north again , 2 weeks had passed and it gave the Red Army time to catch its breath , reorganize the command structure under Zhukov , fresh shock troops from Siberia were brought in and the winter worsened . Hitler became one of USSR’s greatest Allies !
If the drive on Moscow was not interfered with , in all likelihood the Nazi flag would have been flying over the Kremlin by Christmas .
How the rest of history would have played out after that is a subject of study with many different outcomes , but in my opinion it would have forced the USA to make a conditional peace treaty with the Germans . What do you think ?
It may be interesting to note that when the Germans entered the Ukraine they were welcomed as liberators . The people absolutely hated Stalin . But again , with the meddling of Hitler , he could not grasp the importance of this . His heavy handed policies drove the people back to defending Stalin and their homeland .
If you couple this and the taking of Moscow , the USSR would have been beaten . Hitler thought he could handle strategy and tactics , but he was nothing more than a politician who’s insatiable appetite for more land got in the way of all reason .
Stalin was feared by his commanders , but he knew when to back off . Zhukov was a brilliant strategist and tactician , and Stalin gave him room to maneuver , something that Hitler stripped from his Generals . The only place we’re Hitler did not interfere was on the sea . But had he listened to Doenitz early on and gave him his 150 U boat fleet , England would have died on the vine .
Interesting stuff isn’t it ?

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Yankeepapa6 Loc: New York City

If you say so. Did France and England allow Germany, in violation of the treaty of Versailles to rearm? Did France and England allow Germany to invade the Rhineland in 1936 in violation of the Treaty? How did they enforce the violation?? They did not. They back stepped. This emboldened Hitler Why did they allow Hitler to rebuild the German Army, The Luftwaffe? It's Navy? Why did they allow him to cancel the retribution payments dictated in The Versailles Treaty? What did they do when Hitler invaded Austria? NOTHING.
England had the treaty to protect Czechoslovakia. That moron Chamberlain has a meeting with Hitler and Chamberlain sold out the Czechoslovakia. Hitler used him for his blow up doll. Then England and France these two stand up countries agreed that Germany could not be permitted to upset the balance of power by taking over all of Eastern Europe and had formally guaranteed Poland’s sovereignty. Hitler responded with anew type of warfare called, The Blitzkrieg. By then it was all over. The French and the English were outfought and outmaneuvered.As they ran towards Dunkirk leaving a massive amount of military hardware behind them how lucky were they that Hitler did not bomb or use artillery to destroy all those troops on the beaches.
Is that a somewhat understanding of what happened?? Is this a perceived view or fairly factual? Only a dimwitted fool such as yourself would think one does not have the understanding of battles fought and the rewards.

Yankeepapa6 Loc: New York City

In the long run, if you compare Hitler and Stalin. Stalin was by far the worse of the two.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Pegasus Loc: Texas Gulf Coast

What you just recited is the plain story without any understanding of what was happening at the time or behind the scenes. You also do not read my responses, or more probably do not understand them.

You're was is known as an Internet bully; anybody who disagrees with you is a moron. You look at history with uncomprehending eyes. You judge people and actions according to your understanding of history and also the fact it's been 70+ years. You are ignorant of anything else that was occurring at the same time and the life experiences of the people making decisions in those days. You think Chamberlain should have known everything that Hitler was going to do. All he had to do with look it up on the Internet and what a moron, he didn't.

By the spring of 1917, the British Army in Europe (BEF) was essentially a spent force; no longer consequential. The French army was exhausted and on the verge or mutiny. The Russians dropped out of the war a few months later and the Central Powers were busy moving their forces from the Eastern front back to France. The coming spring 1918 offensive was going to finish off France and the BEF and the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, etc.) were going to win the war. If it were not for the USA, the First World War would have been won by Germany and there would probably have not been a Second World War.

Germany surrendered without having any enemy soldiers on its territory. The terms of the Armistice were pretty nasty, because France and Britain were fairly angry that they were losing the war and had to depend on the USA to save them so they were going to be nasty with Germany. Too nasty as it turned out. All they did was sow the seeds of the next war.

Hitler and Stalin were essentially the same. The Nazis and the Soviets were both Socialists; remember that Nazi means National Socialism, and the Soviets were International Socialists. Dictators rule such countries, by design. Stalin helped Hitler develop planes and tanks on Soviet territory, away from the allies eyes. The Wehrmacht was limited in size by the Versailles Treaty, so the Germans developed their cadre for the coming armies. They trained the officers and non-commissioned officers extensively so that when it was time to rapidly build up the army, the command structure was already in place.

Did you know that during WW2, the German army was the best trained army of all the belligerents? The British Army was arguably the second best trained one. All the movies that you see where the German soldiers are transfixed when the commanding officer is killed, well, that's all fake. They were very well trained and initiative was ingrained in their training. Not so for the US Army, but we learned a lot during the war and applied it later on.

Even though Hitler and Stalin, and Mussolini were all bosom socialist buddies, Hitler hated the Russians because he thought they were subhuman (imagine that, Hitler the socialist was a racist) and he also despised international socialism, which was not quite the same as national socialism.

So Hitler took advantage of Stalin's help in developing and building his forces.

When Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland, France had just signed a pact with the Soviets, so this was an excuse to break the Locarno Treaty. It was a complex situation but Hitler gambled that France would not go to was over the Rhineland. He sent a few small units into the Rhineland to see if France would react; France was much more powerful than Germany at that time and could have stopped them there and then, but they didn't. Britain was in no position to do anything about it without France. Hitler stated that the Franco-Soviet pact pushed him to do that, but that he was ready to rejoin the League of Nations if there was no reaction. There wasn't and of course, he didn't.

This was essentially the last time that Hitler could have been stopped before the start of WW2. If France has reacted, Hitler would have pulled out his few units and gone quiet, for a while. When France did nothing, Hitler knew he was now in the clear, so to speak.

If Britain had declared war on Germany in 1938, they probably would not have survived. As I explained earlier, Britain was not ready to resist Nazi Germany in 1938, and Chamberlain knew all that. He had to stall Hitler and he did. Also, Chamberlain was very much a pacifist; he abhorred war and wanted to avoid it at all costs, but he knew it was inevitable. His actions were quite popular in England at the time, nobody wanted to go to war. Chamberlain declared war on Germany a couple days after Hitler invaded Poland and he resigned as prime minister in May of 1940 after the Allies abandoned Norway. The Phony War had ended and Hitler was on the move. Chamberlain died in November of 1940, right after the Battle of Britain, knowing that England had survived the initial onslaught.

Blitzkrieg was not a new type of warfare; but the countries which Hitler conquered used that as an excuse for losing so quickly. The Maginot line did its job and the German Army was indeed funneled into Belgium in May 1940, as planned. They did surprise people by going through the impassable Ardennes Forest in such great numbers and so quickly, but they did the same thing 4 years later, surprising us at the Battle of The Bulge. (History does repeat itself.)

Belgium had created forts like Eben-Emael, designed to slow down or stop invading armies, but they forgot to check the roof. The German Army went right through them and got into France very quickly, faster than expected, but they were expected. That's why the BEF was there in the first place. After the first clash, the French government folded like a deck of cards as the military was working on a counter-offensive. That's when pandemonium ensued and every body started retreating instead of standing fast and counter-attacking. The Germans had lousy tanks and the French had better ones, and more of them but they were very badly led and that was the name of that tune.

Without America, England would probably have reached a separate peace with Hitler, freeing him to go after his erstwhile partner, Stalin. Without America's help the USSR would have collapsed and Stalin pushed back beyond the Ural mountains. Germany would have ruled all of Europe except for the UK, which would not be much of a problem, cut off from the rest of the world by the U-Boats and thus existing at Hitler's pleasure.

Churchill knew that America had to get into the war; that was the only way and he needed to keep England free until that occurred. When Hitler declared war on Germany a couple days after Pearl Harbor, Churchill knew it would work out. Of course, the battle of the Atlantic was still raging and things got very dire for England in late 1942, early 1943. Very dire. But Ultra was now in full swing, the codes were broken, planes were now coming online with on board radars and the U-boats were hunted with vigor and great effect, and the German 6th Army had just be annihilated at Stalingrad.

You have to look at the whole picture and stop thinking that if the people 70 years ago didn't do what you think they should have done, just because you have hindsight, doesn't make them stupid. Your saying so makes you look stupid, and ignorant.

Anyway, I've spent more time here than I wanted to, educating ignorant people who wish to remain ignorant, so I will now unwatch this thread.

Yankeepapa6 Loc: New York City

A bully???? I just stated what happened. I guess this guy wants his cake and eat it also. What did I say that wasn't true?? So now this is too much for him. OK. I guess he will take his toys and go home. Maybe I should have allowed him his illusion that only he understands what happened. All I did was point out what did happen.