Lilith:

Read a book or two before you make astoundingly asinine comments like “Africa/Sicily/Italy for all of 1943 and half of 1944 were a waste of time and resources.” and “it was all about looking busy for Stalin.” Pick up “An Army At Dawn” by Rick Atkinson. Our Army was brave and committed, but hopelessly unready for combat until it had fought through 2 years of OJT in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. The cross channel invasion would have been a disaster without the lessons learned in combined arms tactics, air support and logistics. As brutal as the fight was across Normandy and Europe, there are thousands of graves across the Mediterranean littoral that testify to the price that had to be paid to build an army capable of D Day. Also, the campaigns in North Africa, Sicily and Italy ground down hundreds of thousands of Wehrmacht troops, tanks, vehiles, guns, ships and aircraft that might have tipped the balance at Stalingrad or Kursk. I’m sure the Germans missed them badly when they were gone, as the eastern front was capable of consuming every man Germany had, and the battles there in 1942 and 1943 were very close run affairs.