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ShermanM4 -> (9/17/2003 3:12:52 AM)
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[QUOTE]Do you guys think the war could have been won by bypassing the German cities? [/QUOTE] What do you mean by cities? What exactly constitutes a city? When trying to find a stable and permanent bridgehead over a geographic barrier called the "Rhine River," then I have to contend that no, the war could not have been won. I visited both Bonn and Cologne the last time I was in Germany and naturally those cities destroyed their municipal bridges over the river. The bridgehead, of course, was found to the South of Bonn in a little place called Remagen. Is that place a city? I think so! It is not the size of Cologne or Bonn, but there were several thousand people living there then and now. Aachen was then as now criticised as the wrong course of action. General Courtney Hodges felt that Aachen must be taken at all costs if any serious attempts to move across the Rhine were possible. He probably did not realize his men would be sucked into tight, door to door, city fighting for 2 months, while the remnants of the Heer escaped out the back door. Aachen just seemed like it would be an easy victory. In any case we could go down the road of all the hypothesis' you wish to consider. My most favorite is the allies actually succeded in Operation Market Garden! In fact they did not and the war dragged on all the way until may of 1945.
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