HIST 388 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: George S. Patton, Atlantic Wall, Anglophile
Document Summary
A second front at last: italy and normandy. 1943, supposes a luxury of choice of for the western allies, not enjoyed by the soviet union. Russia and her satellites had poured millions of lives into vicious struggle, while most allied men had barely fired a shot. Even churchill in 1943 was aware of the sentiment in the red army that, those bastards want to join in only when the outcome is nearly decided. pressure of stalin was also mounting. In contrast with the ussr, commonwealth and american soldiers in the north african campaign had barely even engaged german forces in a major ground battle. Germany, it was necessary to destroy the wehrmacht, churchill"s message to anglo-american commanders was then clear: stop screwing around and launch a real commitment. Still, the american preference for a cross-channel invasion from britain, found little support among british generals.