First Rundstedt please understand that my comments are not personal.
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Originally Posted by Rundstedt
Could not agree more, the western allies were in no shape to invade Europe directly,
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In 42 probably not, but could they have been in 43 if the Torch (invasion of NA) and not been done?
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Originally Posted by Rundstedt
America and Britain knew that they could invade Europe through Italy via North Africa,
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The only part of Europe that was invaded through Italy was Italy. There was the secondary landings in So. France in 44 but was this landing needed, or could it have been launched from other locations?
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Originally Posted by Rundstedt
as it turned out it led to the destruction of many Axis divisions, and it knocked Italy out of the war in 1943, again this proved strategically important as it diverted many German division from the Eastern Front and the Atlantic Wall.
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Are you refering to the German Divisions in Tunisia 43? How many Allied divisions did it cost? Had the W. Allies invaded France in 43, how many more German divisions would have been lost, along with France? No more than 25 divisions were diverted to Italy and the Allies had more men there than the Germans. What was Italy contributing to the war effort that ended when Italy was invaded?
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Originally Posted by Rundstedt
vaunted
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I think you like this word. Nothing wrong with it.
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Originally Posted by Rundstedt
Atlantic Wall was defended by third and fourth rate (mostly recovering wounded) troops. Also the location of the invasion was a brilliant piece of planning as the Germans never expected the invasion to take place in the Normandie area, Germany had planned a Calais landing and had the bulk of its forces their.
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If you would like to prove this list the divisions in France their man power status, and previous war experiance. The landing in Normandy was war-gamed, I need the source on this, so it is not fact yet. But this was why the areas around the beaches were flooded.
Please keep contributing your facts and referneces here. Again it is not personal.