Quote:
Originally Posted by FramerT
Correct me on my dates, but was'nt the North Africa campaign wrapping up in May or April '43? These units would'nt have time to go right back into battle at Normandy. The US would be using green troops for the invasion.
I have to dis-agree on the air superiority not being a factor. In mid '44, the Allies had hammered the German infrastructure. Also German armor could not move during the day time with Allied air ruleing the sky. They would not have this luxury in '43. The Germans had far more pilots and gas than in '44.
Again, correct me on this date. But was'nt the P-51 with the Merlin just starting to be mass produced in mid '43?
Rommel, just getting back from North Africa, would'nt have much time to strengthen his defences in Normandy in '43. The Allies might have gotten ashore easier but I don't think their dash across France would be. This timeline here puts the western allies ahead of Russia by a year. Would the Yalta agreement have still been? Germany feared Soviet occupation more than British or American.
<I also think that they could have pushed across France by early 1944 and been on the Rhine nearly a year earlier than they were originally.>quote.
Even if they did, were they prepared to take Berlin by themselves?
Eh, just some of my thoughts.
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For a 1943 invasion the decision would have to be made no later than the Casablanca Confrence in January 1943. The decision to cancel the plans for France and focus on the Med for 43 meant a diversion of aircraft, men, equipment, ect.. from Bolero to support Husky & beyond in the Med.
Were the decision taken for France then the Bolero operation would continue without diversion to the Med. The Allied armys in Tunisia would simply sit there taking limited action aginst the Axis and pretend to be dangerous with various deception operations like Mincemeat. Note that the Axis had more armored divsions in Tunisa than in France in March 1943.
Anyway the material diverted to the Med from January to June of 1943 would be available for a cross Channel operation. This strengthens it a fair bit.
A attack on France in 1943 would force the issue on the Luftwaffe. In Western Europe the Luftwaffe fell back out of reach of the RAF and played a game of attacking only when the Brits made a mistake. With a Allied army ashore in France the Luftwaffe can either come out and fight or abandon the Wehrmacht. Supporting the battle in France places it in range of the shortlegged Spitfires and arriving US aircraft. In other words the Allies dont need drop tanks or P51s. The Luftwaffe comes to them. The Luftwaffe lost the air battle in the Med in the winter/spring 1943. Taking on another battle of attrition, against a larger number of Allied aircraft in the summer sounds good to me.