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Possible Britain won early ww2?

Discussion in 'Western Europe 1939 - 1942' started by Heidi, Jun 3, 2009.

  1. Hellcat15

    Hellcat15 Member

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    I understand. My punctuation isn't all that great but at least I'm spelling everything right. I don't mind bad punctuation. But If I can't read the paragraph because you didn't spell anything correctly there is something wrong.
     
  2. Jaeger

    Jaeger Ace

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    Hellcat

    Read my "reason for editing"
     
  3. worldwar2isawesome

    worldwar2isawesome Member

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    The only way for Britain to have won WW2 early is to prevent it. They could've not appeased Hitler at Munich in 1938, or earlier in 1936, told the French to prevent Germans occupying Rhineland.

    Btw, I was thinking of Eisenhower's quote "The only way to win World War III is to prevent it".
     
  4. urqh

    urqh Tea drinking surrender monkey

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    He was wrong then..It was not prevented and it was won.
     
  5. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    I must have missed it. Just when did it happen?
     
  6. Kai-Petri

    Kai-Petri Kenraali

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    Just something that was "expected" by the French in 1940. :

    --------

    From Griffiths "Marshal Petain" (1970)

    On Churchill´s note on 11th June 1940 that the situation in war was like that in March 1918:

    "Yes, the front was re-established. You, the English were routed. But I sent forty divisions to get you out of trouble.Today, it is we who are being broken to bits. Where are your forty divisions?" said Marshal Petain.

    As recalled by De Gaulle.
     
  7. urqh

    urqh Tea drinking surrender monkey

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    Ahem...cough cough...I must admit the eyes are getting older...Its all the sheep dip...And late nights during lambing....are there nights then.....WW3 ahem....look you lot if we are on a ww2 forum use the figures not the shift keys for letters....I read ww2 not 3...Sorry I'd stay but I hear baaaaing from the barn.
     
  8. marc780

    marc780 Member

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    If i understand half of what you were trying to say, yes WW2 might have been unwinnable without Britain.
    The British bankrupted their country and destroyed their empire to win world war2 and their role was by no means minor - but the military forces of Russia and the industrial and military might of the USA, the atomic bomb in particular, were what ultimately proved decisive.

    The British had a good military but never could they ever consider a cross-channel invasion of German-occupied France on their own. It was only American industrial might and additional American divisions that made D-day possible. However, all that American military power would have done nothing to reconquer Europe, without a British coast to launch the invasion from.

    Suppose England had been lost as an allied staging point before 1944, what then? Where could the Americans have launched an invasion to retake Europe?

    Spain was neutral and Hitler certainly would have reacted if the Americans moved to invade Spain.

    Launching an invasion from North Africa or even allied-occupied Italy was out since the Germans controlled Greece, Crete, and almost the entire northern Mediteranean coastline in Western Europe. Moreoever any allied invasian armada launched from these areas would have given the Germans days of warning time to prepare, not hours as they had on D-day.

    Simply adding to the allied forces in Italy and pushing north would not have been a simple proposition, and possibly not even a viable option: the Germans held the allied forces in Italy from advancing almost to the end of the war (due to terrain factors such as the Italian alps).

    So without Britain the war would have taken a lot longer to win. Unfortunately the British sacrificed their blood and treasure, and the last signicant portions of their former empire, to win it. The economic effect on Britain of winning two world wars was profound: In an interview from years ago, the actor Michael Caine reported that there was meat rationing in England, until 1960.
     
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  9. urqh

    urqh Tea drinking surrender monkey

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    Bankrupted is right...War ended and on day one, lend lease was turned into a loan. The worst winters in memory were to follow and it was hard for the British to see that with their whole country at one time geared for war production and survival was suddenly treated as no different than the recent enemies and defeated allied nations. In fact trade wise America gained and wanted the British empire disbanded...They got their wish. Yemen dont forget was Aden..the Gulf was once a union jacik...We had to leave yes...But with such haste as financial and political pressure from our recent friends to aid their own planning of the world order...Britian was bankrupted by ww2. Maybe it would be better if she had gone under in the long run. Certainly seeing some posts on this forum in recent years on the idolisation of the German war machine by some of our American allies makes me wonder what would happen if ww2 started in 1976 and not 1939,,,allies...but to whom...Communism seems to be held as a bigger threat to some than the nazi jack boot that was....Maybe its a closeness thing...Maybe its the fact that we didnt just fight a war...We fought for survival and have suffere ever since.
     
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  10. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    I misread it the first time mlyself ... There are a number of reasons that Roman numerals aren't used that much any more. :p
     
  11. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    It's worth noting in this regard that the British and Canadians made a significant contribution to the Manhatten project. Allied radar systems would also not have been nearly as advanced were it not for the synergies between the US and Britain.
     
  12. Anderan

    Anderan Member

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    As the saying goes, "WW2 was won by British guts, American guns, and Russian blood." Granted that takes a lot of credit away from the various participants but it works well enough.
     
  13. Spaniard

    Spaniard New Member

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    I believe Operation ULTRA made significant contributions.
     
  14. Volga Boatman

    Volga Boatman Dishonorably Discharged

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    Britain's chief contribution, amongst a host of others, was her intelligence effort.

    Learning as they had in WW1 that you cannot fight a war at all with any chance of success unless you rule the land in the sphere of the intelligence services.

    Without the resources, brains and manpower that the United Kingdom spent on their intelligence effort, the Allied war effort could not have achieved results of any description. We would have had far more in the way of disasters, with the comensurate drag of the conflict, had we not devoted much to our intel service.

    In fact, it is MY assertion that, had German intel realised how badly compromised their own operations were, would they have gone to war at all?

    This lesson was duly passed on to our American and Russian allies, who spent the next 45 years trying to dominate one another in this field alone. It was a very wise lesson to learn, and our allies became apt pupils.

    One reason the Malayan Emergency was such a success and the Vietnam Police Action was such a failure was the very fact of superior intelligence for the former. British forces in Malaya had lists of every CT soldier in the country, and when 'contacts' were made, EVERY dead soldier was identified and 'crossed off' these lists.

    Superior intel = superior battlefield performance = winning = everyone left alive can go home.
     
  15. Kruska

    Kruska Member

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    Oh sure,

    Britain set the gravestone on Hitler's grave (that is if he had one :))

    Regards
    Kruska
     
  16. urqh

    urqh Tea drinking surrender monkey

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    They certainly did...My dad was there....He had the mark one spade, hitler grave for the digging of...Issued by war department....And I always believe me old dad.
     
  17. sniper1946

    sniper1946 Expert

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    but hitler dug his own grave urqh!...:D:rolleyes:

    Hitler Picture: Hitler Wielding a Shovel

    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Kruska

    Kruska Member

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    :D:D, he sure did - but Britain was the one to contribute for the gravestone. - or lets rather say the grave marker.

    Regards
    Kruska
     
  19. sniper1946

    sniper1946 Expert

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    let me hit im!;)
     
  20. Carronade

    Carronade Ace

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    They certainly would have changed their communication procedures, possibly some tactics like the close control Donitz exercised over his U-boats. However I can't quite see Hitler saying "The Engima's been compromised? Oh, well, so much for that Lebensraum business...." ;)
     

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