Alexandra
Posts: 546
Joined: 12/7/2000 From: USA Status: offline
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If the invasion had failed, it would have been a few months before another could be mounted. It would have given Germany a lot of time to slow the Soviet advance and to continue in the manufacture of advanced weaponry, including jets, rockets and work on the A-bomb.
I'd have to disagree with you, respectfully here, Bill. Carlo D'este in his quite excellent "Decision In Normandy" indicates that it was the clear view of the Combined Chiefs of Staff that Overlord was a one shot operation. The main reasons for this, IMO - and I can't back this up with hard data - are the lack of transports, and the begining of war weariness in the US. By June '44, there was already the political whispers of the everpresent, it seems, US Peace Movement.
Britian, as well, as again shown in "Decision in Normandy" was at the end of it's manpower and economic tether, and may now have been able, even if willing, to try an Overlord Two.
However, even had a second effort been made - perhaps an upgunned Anvil, or a new push in Italy, it may have made no difference. According to - among others - Andrei Gromyko, Stalin had already floated peace feelers - based on Status Quo Ante to Hitler in both '42 and '43, using contacts between his own and the German Ambassadors in Sweden and Switzterland.
Given Joe's paranoia, and insitance on the Second Front, I truly feel that had Overlord failed he would have made broader concessions to Hitler to end the War in the East.
As for the Bomb argument, I don't think so. I don't feel that any US President would have, at that point, authorized the atom boming of any European nation, and, with respect to the Atom Bomb therorists - what difference would it have made? We had two, and every city of note in Germany was already rubble. We may have killed the upper elements of the NSDAP and OKW and OKH, but, it could be argued that would have made the Wermacht - or more specifically the Heer, stronger not weaker. Guderian, for one, wouldn't have minded seeing Hitler and OKH go up in a big cloud of dust
However, the worse case scenario for the bomb is that someone like Himmler would have come to power...
Alex
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