On June 6th, 1944, allied forces under the flags of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States landed on Juno, Sword, Gold, Utah, and Omaha beaches in Normandy in the largest landing invasion in history, paving the way for a western front to be opened in Europe during WW2.
Plus it’s my birthday today, so I figured I’d ask!
Before the battle of France they were at war with Germany With their forces in France but they refused to launch an offensive, see the Phoney War period, and Stalin was asking them to send forces to Poland before the war to contain Hitler, but they all refused. If the Germans had reached Moscow then they would no longer care about Britain as they would have more territory than they would know what to do with, leaving the door open for coexistence and by 44 the strategic importance of the Western front was fading, especially since they fucked up market garden too. Ofc it was good when they finally did it but they were double dealing.
Nazi interests were contrary to Wally interests. Imperialism is a zero-sum game and neither Britain nor France could allow Nazi supremacy on the continent. The ‘optimism’ that the Nazis could be thrown at the Soviets was essentially short-sighted and a gross miscalculation of Nazi ambition.
The whole Wallies being friendlier to Nazis than USSR is fodder for the pre-war appeasement conversation, and for blaming the Wallies for allowing the war to happen, not for claiming AFTER hostilities began that the Wallies were under any illusions of that happening.
How do you explain the phoney war? that wasn’t before hostilities
Wally strategic planning presumed a semi-defensive war fought in Belgium or beyond, Belgium trying to do neutrality and re-enact WW1 fucked this up. the Saar offensive (and all other possible offensives on the french border) a) butted into the German defenses–hard fighting b) dislodged troops from a position of strength on the Maginot.
off of the franco-german border, the Wallys were perfectly prepared to engage the Axis, the naval war was hot, and a naval blockade was initiated. the blockade especially indicates Wally intentions, you’d hardly expect a germany cut off from the rest of the world to invade the USSR and win
Pretty strange to enact a blockade without also attacking, almost like they didn’t really want to prosecute a war with Germany, at least not until they outlived their usefulness of destroying the USSR.
a naval blockade is attackin. the phoney war period is also when most of the german surface fleet got sunk.
also just before the Battle of France the French & British deployed in Norway, boots-on-the-ground fighting, thousands of allied casualties