It was the beginning of the end for the Germans in Europe- Russia’s not really Europe, at least in the wider sense generally used by people referring to Europe.
And my understanding is that although the debacle at Stalingrad was a massive defeat on the Russian Front, it wasn’t until the Allies started wading ashore at Normandy that the Germans realised they were fighting a losing battle on two fronts.
I just realized that I fell into the same trap as Martin Enfield regarding the “ease” of the Utah Beach landings. It’s true that the sea landings went well. However there were two other units involved in the Utah landings, the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions and their assaults were far from easy. This was partly a result of German opposition but a large part was caused by the innate difficulty of parachute and glider landings at night. In any case, the airborne troops took a lot of casualties particularly the 101st. I’m not sure about the British airborne landings but I seem to recall that, although difficult, they were more like the 82nd Airborne Division landings than like the 101st’s.
Thank you for posting this, Ivylass.
I would have posted it yesterday except I kept getting 404 errors while trying to connect to SDMB.
My grandfather’s birthday is June 6th. As a young man, he spent several of those birthdays fighting in Europe (but he was not part of D-Day).
Thanks, Papa.