Uhhhhh, no. Not really.
D Day, or the Allied invasion at Normandy in 1944 (June 6) was pivotal IN THE WEST, but had it not been for the mother of all turning points at Stalingrad, frankly, we would have been pushed into the sea. We almost were, by the way. The first three DIVISIONS (8,000 men apiece) were reduced to somewhere around three COMPANIES (maybe 300 or so men, by the estimates) in the first couple of hours. Coxswains rebelled and simply refused to steer the boats into the meatgrinder of death. It was horrific. The opening scenes of Saving Pvt Ryan are an understatement, not an overstatement, of the fear, panic, confusion and death of the first guys in.
That in mind, it is important to note that the defenses there were SCALED DOWN because of the massive losses that the Wermacht had taken in the Eastern Front. We took some losses and they stung. They pale against the comparison of ONE POINT EIGHT MILLION men who either died or were severely wounded in the Eastern Campaign. More men died in the Soviet army SIMPLY IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD than the US lost the entire war.
The Soviet army was as tough as anything we could imagine, and the godless Stalin regime threw them into the jaws of the German war machine like an unarmed person trying to stop a tank by jamming a crowbar into the treads. Wave after wave after wave after wave. It is really jaw dropping. Although the leaders were wicked men, the ones who died were like soldiers everywhere....., fighting for the homeland, their wives sweethearts and kids....., and their fellow soldiers.
The Russians broke the back of the mighty 6th army of Germany, surrounded it, killed off over 200 thousand men (started at 300,000, and then when 91,000 of them surrendered, less than 6000 survived Russian prison and returned after the war. You read that right. SIX thousand of 91,000. This happened in 1943, about 8 mos before the allied invasion at Normandy.
I hate communism. Stalin and the reds were unspeakably wicked, murderers, tyrants, and monsters. Yet, it is not hard to see why many Russians did view him as a kind of Winston Churchill. He saved Russia from the Nazis.
The key to remember here, though is that the USA sees itself as the "savior of the world from Hitler."
That is frankly, hogwash. It is still my opinion that we should have stayed out of that war, and let the TWO leftist monsters eat each other up. It is nonsense to assert that the west drained assets from Germany that "allowed" Russia to defeat them. In fact, estimates are that the Germans underestimated the strength of the Russian army BY HALF.
So, credit where credit is due, here. It does not diminish the bravery of the Allies nor does it dishonor the memories of those who thought they were saving the world from Hitler. However, it is a big propagandistic pile of horse manure to paint the intervention of the USA as the thing that did it (saved the world from Hitler).
What is worse, it paved the way for the monstrous egoism of those who insist that this was a "good war" and our abandoning the principle of non interference and isolation for the sake of that war therefore justifies the nonsense of us policing the world today, and the idiotic intrusions into the Mideast, Africa, and just about any other place on the map some general can find a place to put troops.
Governments are built on lies, and this one was a whopper.
Don't hate the messenger........
D Day, or the Allied invasion at Normandy in 1944 (June 6) was pivotal IN THE WEST, but had it not been for the mother of all turning points at Stalingrad, frankly, we would have been pushed into the sea. We almost were, by the way. The first three DIVISIONS (8,000 men apiece) were reduced to somewhere around three COMPANIES (maybe 300 or so men, by the estimates) in the first couple of hours. Coxswains rebelled and simply refused to steer the boats into the meatgrinder of death. It was horrific. The opening scenes of Saving Pvt Ryan are an understatement, not an overstatement, of the fear, panic, confusion and death of the first guys in.
That in mind, it is important to note that the defenses there were SCALED DOWN because of the massive losses that the Wermacht had taken in the Eastern Front. We took some losses and they stung. They pale against the comparison of ONE POINT EIGHT MILLION men who either died or were severely wounded in the Eastern Campaign. More men died in the Soviet army SIMPLY IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD than the US lost the entire war.
The Soviet army was as tough as anything we could imagine, and the godless Stalin regime threw them into the jaws of the German war machine like an unarmed person trying to stop a tank by jamming a crowbar into the treads. Wave after wave after wave after wave. It is really jaw dropping. Although the leaders were wicked men, the ones who died were like soldiers everywhere....., fighting for the homeland, their wives sweethearts and kids....., and their fellow soldiers.
The Russians broke the back of the mighty 6th army of Germany, surrounded it, killed off over 200 thousand men (started at 300,000, and then when 91,000 of them surrendered, less than 6000 survived Russian prison and returned after the war. You read that right. SIX thousand of 91,000. This happened in 1943, about 8 mos before the allied invasion at Normandy.
I hate communism. Stalin and the reds were unspeakably wicked, murderers, tyrants, and monsters. Yet, it is not hard to see why many Russians did view him as a kind of Winston Churchill. He saved Russia from the Nazis.
The key to remember here, though is that the USA sees itself as the "savior of the world from Hitler."
That is frankly, hogwash. It is still my opinion that we should have stayed out of that war, and let the TWO leftist monsters eat each other up. It is nonsense to assert that the west drained assets from Germany that "allowed" Russia to defeat them. In fact, estimates are that the Germans underestimated the strength of the Russian army BY HALF.
So, credit where credit is due, here. It does not diminish the bravery of the Allies nor does it dishonor the memories of those who thought they were saving the world from Hitler. However, it is a big propagandistic pile of horse manure to paint the intervention of the USA as the thing that did it (saved the world from Hitler).
What is worse, it paved the way for the monstrous egoism of those who insist that this was a "good war" and our abandoning the principle of non interference and isolation for the sake of that war therefore justifies the nonsense of us policing the world today, and the idiotic intrusions into the Mideast, Africa, and just about any other place on the map some general can find a place to put troops.
Governments are built on lies, and this one was a whopper.
Don't hate the messenger........
