most destructive battle of the european theatre

So you imply that after Omaha was secured they all sat down and had tea, and THEN began a new battle?

The 90 day battle for Normandy that ended on the Seine was not a puny affair. Looking at the number of men and machinery involved on both sides, it rivals most battles during the war.

You might want to run this theory by Sapper and other veterans.
I'm not suggesting that the Normandy battle was no.1, but merely giving a caution regarding dumb remarks.

 

I recall the total casualtys for the Italian front in those months, both civilian and military were less than 300,000. Dead, wounded, prisoners. That includes partisans, women and children victims or air raids, and war related disease. Less than fourty divsions in Italy on both sides. The specific battles surrounding Cassino accumulated less than 100,000 casualties of all types and involved barely a dozen divsions on both sides. A vicious battle but not a large one.

The Allies did not come to grips with the German Army in full force until the autum of 1944 when they finally arrayed three full Army Groups or Fronts against Germany. I'd judge their only truely large scale ground battles of the Allies would be the battle of France in 1940, and the final attack into Germany in 1945. The latter was certainly destructive on a large scale.

In the air the entire bombing campaign was destructive all out of proportion to the combatants. A few thousand airmen burning entire cities to the ground in a couple days.

 

Hmmm, By then there wasn't much of anything to do a decent mobile defense, much less the fuel to go with it.

About the second paragraph, careful there, there was still a lot of lif in the dying man. How many Sov soldiers did get killed by a "man (that) was not dead yet, but he could no longer defend himself" ? Qui«te a lot, wouldn't you agree?

Hey, and I'm supposed to be the Russian propagandist here!

 

Many people were still afraid of Hitler. Even when he was sick he was still dangerous. It doesn't look that way but it really was. There were still plenty of Soldiers left that didn't capitulated and were still under his command.

They were still loyal. Many young Soldiers still fought for Hitler before and after his death, same as for other Soldiers. Many, Many & Many capitulated but also many didn't.

There are Two reasons for that:

1. Loyal to Hitler's Oath. One of the best examples is 'Léon Degrell' till the day he died (March 31, 1994) he was still loyal to Hitler. Same as other loyal Soldiers. Many Soldiers took their own lives after hearing that Hitler shot himself. Loyalty is not something to underestimate.
2. Taken prisoner by the Russians. Their fate wasn't sure when the Russians took them prisoner. Most tried to capitulate to the West, if that didn't work, many fought to the bitter end or had no other choose but to surrender to the Russians, with the fear to being tortured or shot & never seeing their family again.

Hitler Stalin's fear. Stalin was scared of Hitler:

• What if Hitler didn't shot himself?
• What would Hitler do when he fleed?
• Would Hitler take revenge?
• Could he do the same as before?
• ...

He wanted the remais which were found, not sure if it was Hitler's remains, completely destroyed.

 

hitler didn't shoot himself did he, didn't hitler and eva braun take a cyanide capsual after getting married?

 

oh well you learn something new everyday

 

From what I've read, Hitler both shot himself and took cyanide at the same time. Eva only took cyanide.

 

Operation Overlord inflicted over 400,000 casualties on the German army

 

Different sources claim different numbers.... But whats a few thousand between pals?

 

I read from a different source that Army Group Centre actually lost around 550,000 men from 22 divisions. But as said, the sources' accounts and numbers vary.

 

I believe that the most accepted figures are around 300-400 thousand Germans. While numbers may continue to vary for an indefinate amount of time, one thing is for sure, the Soviet Belorussian offensive annahilated Army Groupe Centre and three of its component armies: Fourth Army, Third Panzer Army and Ninth Army.

I guess everything else is pure speculation, at least until additional facts are presented.

 

Very true; if army group centre had not been destroyed army group south in czechoslovakia would have not been cut off fron the rest of the german front. Because army group centre was annihilateed in bagration, the southern german front could not defend itself properly becasue it was quickly encircled and could not counter-attack the soviet belorussian fronts in a southern flank-attack. This is also true of army group north. The destruction of army group centre also cleared the way to warsaw and, ultimately, the oder river. This in turn led to the installment of artillery batteries across the oder, which began the assault on berlin itself.

 

The reason he did this is because his doctor warned him that if his hand was shaking he might only shatter his optic nerve. (I remember the scene from 'Downfall') If he took a cyanide capsule, he would have 5 seconds to live, ensuring that even if he did not pull the trigger properly, he would still die.

 

And some in here would like to believe that the Red Army was incompetent . PPSH!

 

Once an Asiatic Horde, always an Asiatic Horde!

 

It's not a battle, but The Blitz on London 1940-1941.

Actual battle - I think the Battle of Berlin in 1945. Good Lord if you've seen those photos...there was barely anything left after the Soviets were through with it!

 

Technically you can call the blitz a battle, but I get your point.

 

Well you COULD...but then it was more a concentrated bombing-raid by the Luftwaffe against civilians than actual soldiers and/or aircraft fighting one-on-one, so I don't really consider it a battle. But it was a very significant event, which is why I mentioned it.

 

NOthing left of Berlin, havn't you seen pictures of staingrad or monte casssioL