I think the Churchill quote above was re: the battle of britain and the royal air force holding the luftwaffe at bay, NOT D-day. Though that applies too on principle, of course (just less "so few", it was a lot of people)
Quote:
Originally Posted by pwd72s
Spot on...if Pearl Harbor hadn't been attacked, we may not have entered the war at all.
But once we entered, and our untouched industrial might was cranked up...
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Both you guys are spot on indeed.. American history books often forget the war started in 1939, not dec 41 - it was *quite* a while before the US decided to join, also with the benefit of being an ocean away with over 2 years to prepare - but once they did, the rest is history...It always annoys me how people single out how France fell (with a common border to Germany and zero time and old equipment), ignore that the rest of europe folded even faster, and somehow never joke about the countries who joined the wrong side - "haha french white flag, LOL" - "s'all good Italy and Spain! no worries" (study italy's war debacles in africa, there's so much material for jokes there). Or switzerland - "we take no sides, but we'll hoard your gold teeth and stolen art". Lots of interesting stuff to be read, like for instance the French air force, woefully underequipped with antique stuff yet still managed in those few weeks to blunt the luftwaffe enough that it needed a break and did not succeed carrying on to conquer the british skies (I'm paraphrasing the intro of Adolf Galland's book here, general of the luftwaffe, not my opinion).. Also all the weird stuff where the Vichy fleet was sunk by England in the harbor somewhat treacherously (fair enough, in war, but weird how you brush stuff aside after), or the embarassing stuff where people all over europe collaborated under the nazis (easy to judge people 80y later when you know who won, I guess)... and let's also not bring up some of the Hitler sympathies all over the world at the time, from Henry Ford to... the duke of windsor in britain (ex king, no less)! I find it interesting to look back with the benefit of knowing how it ends and who wrote the books.. Lots of super interesting less black and white tales if you study history from all sides..