Did Russia Win D-Day?
Sometimes from a vicious anti-Sovieteer comes the truth. This was written by Eric Margolis of Canada.
If the Soviet Union hadn’t chewed up millions of German soldiers and weapons, D-Day would have failed.
It’s high time that Russia was accorded recognition, especially during the last June celebrations in France on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, France. Most North Americans believe that the US, Canadian and British invasion of Normandy was the decisive stroke of the war. Not so, in my view.
When the Allies invaded France, most of the war-battered German units they met were undermanned, short of armor, trucks, heavy artillery, almost immobile, and reduced to less that 40% combat effectiveness by previous hard fighting on the Eastern Front.
Most important, Germany’s once splendid air force was almost extinct. German forces at Normandy had almost no air cover and were pounded by the Allies day and night by thousands of Allied air strikes and bombers. Few of us recall that close to 20,000 innocent French civilians were killed by our bombing raids!
I am arguing that the German Wehrmacht was not defeated in France, but on the Eastern Front, during the 1941-44. The Red Army destroyed 507 German divisions, 48,000 German tanks and 77,000 German aircraft; 100 divisions of Nazi-allied Romanian, Hungary and Italy; and at least 450,000 Japanese soldiers, 32% of Japan’s total military losses.
Of Germany’s 10,000,000 casualties in World War II, over 75% came by fighting the Red Army. The German air force lost most of its planes and pilots on the Eastern Front. The gigantic battles on the Eastern Front ground down millions of lives.
Soviet Union lost over 20,000,000 people besides in the Pacific battles against Japan - they lost close to 1,000,000. D-Day was just a diversionary sideshow to tie down German troops while the Red Army pushed towards Berlin.
Some people may dispute this, but it is a historical fact that Germany’s military capability was destroyed way before the D-Day ever took place in June of 1944. It is interesting to speculate as to what would have happened to us in the West if Hitler did not invade USSR and if the Allies decided to land in Normandy to face the intact German machine! In my view, the Allies would have been beaten.
I recently saw a plaque in Italy lauding the liberation from the Germans by the "Italian Allied Forces". Excuse me, but I always remember that Italy was on the German side!
This makes you wonder as to who was fighting against the Allies? Everyone who fought against Russia, Britain, US and France now seems to have been anti-Nazi, in the Resistance, or vacationing in South America at the time of the Second World War.
Of course the German Chancellor was at this 60th Anniversary of the invasion of France, all smiles. Maybe we’ll even see a smiling Japanese delegation at Pearl Harbor next year?
Comment:
An excellent article from an anti-Sovieteer. He could have brought himself to write and admit that it was Britain, US and French imperialism that were pushing Hitler to invade the USSR in the first place. Also, he could have admitted that after the Western Imperialists saw that the Red Army was on the verge of liberating the whole of Europe right up to the Atlantic Ocean, they were forced finally to open up the Second Front!
Poor Eric Margolis could not bring himself to admit that the German SS and its Gestapo Secret Service were welcomed with open arms by the USA and sent to holiday in South America (war criminals and all) and then the whole Nazi SS Secret Service’s top echelons were hired and became part of the CIA!
Eric can only do so much at a time,Annelie.The Americans are quite happy with their version.Growing up in Toronto,there were many displaced people,but none of them could admit to any alliance the Germans at that time.Werner was supposedly the only exception to the rule back then for any dealings with Nazis.
Well, I would have to agree with most of what Mr. Margolis wrote, but he might want to give credit to the Western Allies who were bombing German forces day and night, dying in the mud of Sicily, Italy, and N. Africa, and being sent to the bottom of the sea while ferrying unglamorous but necessary goods to the Soviet Union. I think I would also take issue with the statement that "Germany's military capability was destroyed way before D-Day" and so would any Western Allied soldier who actually fought against them. The Germans had enough military force on the Channel Coast to do severe damage to the landing, but it was in the wrong place(Calais), and the the Soviets had nothing to do with it being there; the Western Allies did.
This makes you wonder as to who was fighting against the Allies? Everyone who fought against Russia, Britain, US and France now seems to have been anti-Nazi, in the Resistance, or vacationing in South America at the time of the Second World War.
I think he hit the nail on the head with this one, my grandfather always laughed at all the Europeans (mainly Dutch) who had claimed that they had fought in the resistance. He always said that more Dutchmen had fought against the Allies than for them.
If the Soviet Union hadn’t chewed up millions of German soldiers and weapons, D-Day would have failed
This arguement and its variations have been around for decades. Its a circular arguement which cannot be discussed in a timeline isolation.
Regards
quite true in that if the Allies had not compromised their own moral principles and supplied the Soviet Union with weapons, transport, and other aid, they possibly would have been defeated at Moscow and the Caucasus in late '41.
Did Russia Win D-Day?
Sometimes from a vicious anti-Sovieteer comes the truth.
There were no other "winners" of the World War other than the Russians and the American elites. And tell me a "vicious anti-Sovieteer " who was lying about the USSR...
