2. Sam:
[In what way would it be worse for Hitler to have succeeded and Stalin to fail rather than the other way around? I know certain groups would fare better or worse under Hitler but by shear numbers of slaughtered or sent to Gulags to die, Stalin’s lifetime achievements were worse overall. I don’t see why Stalinist totalitarianism is preferred to that of Hitler. Stalin was every bit the murderous monster that Hitler was and we helped him survive.]
Sam, Stalin certainly killed more people than Hitler, but the latter was a greater menace, for his plan were far reaching and darker.
8. Astra:
Had the men of Normandy 1944 failed, we could have been plunged into a Thousand-Year Reich.
[Unlikely. Stalingrad was over and the Germans were bleeding out on the eastern front. I yield to no one in my respect for Allied troops fighting in Normandy, but I’m constantly amazed how many American and Brits know nothing about where the European war was really decided.]
Correct, Hitler lost the war at Dunkirk, very early on; he did not know it at the time. The Dunkirk mistake was tremendous; generals Halder and Guderian were both dumbfounded by Hitler’s refusal to advance. By the time he gave Goering the go ahead, a mysterious, and out-of-season bad weather impaired the Luftwaffe. The Brits were able to bring back 200,000 soldiers, plus about 100,000 frenchies.
Of course, the Yugoslavian and Greek campaigns shortened the war, for if Hitler has started in May, Moscow was doomed, and the war would have lasted a few more years. Likewise, Hitler would have won the Russian campaign had he given autonomy to the Ukraine after attacking, instead of letting the Einsatzgruppen loose there.
