alan@sdcrdcf.UUCP (06/12/84)
The book this is excerpted from is: The Second World War, a Politico- Military Survey, edited by Major-General I. Zubkov, Progress Publishers, Moscow. Translated from the Russian by Vic Schneierson. There is no copywrite date, but internal evidence show it is later than 1957. This is how the chapter starts: Chapter 15 ALLIES LAND IN FRANCE 1 The second front in Europe was not opened in 1941, and not in 1942. It was not opened in 1943, when the tide had turned and Germany lost its advantage in the battlefield. It was when the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion that the British and American troops landed in Northern France. This was on June 6, 1944. [Notice the writing style, which is more liken to a debate than a free-world history lesson.] The deliberate delay of the second front was the greatest crime committed be the British and U.S. reactionaries against the nations fighting the fascists. [Note the implication that the British and U.S.A. was not fighting the fascists. In fact, most of the book is written in a manner to convince the reader that the British and America were in collusion with Germany.] This includes the British and American peoples. The late opening of the second front cost the nations a trem- endous loss of lives. U.S. ruling quarters regarded the landing of troops in Europe as a phase in their battle for world power. This was why, too, Church- hill still tried in 1944 to put off the invasion of Europe in the interests of Britian's monopolists. This is why he insisted on the offensive in Italy. The Italian campaign began in January and pro- ceeded at a leisurely pace. On June 5, at long last, British and American troops entered Rome. In the meantime, the international situation evidenced the compelling need for a second front, for every further delay could damage the U.S. and British imperialistic designs. The Communist- led liberation movement in France was mushrooming as an effect of the resounding Soviet victories. French patriots saw German divisions shipped east, never to return. [Note the association of "French patriots" with "Communist- led liberation movement". It resumes:] On May 18, 1944, Maurice Thorez issued a radio call for a general uprising. The struggle for liberation waged by the French was gradually developing into a universal insurrection against the German occupation authorities. Reactionaries the world over were deeply alarmed. When they ordered the landing in Northern France, the U.S. and Brisitsh ruling quarters were bent on realising their imperial- istic plans with regard to Germany. They did not want to see fascism entirely crushed. It was their intention to save Europe's reactionary forces from total annihilation. What they also wanted was to prevent the democratisation of countries in Western Europe and to block the road westward for the Soviet Army. The American and British inperialists outdid each other jockeying for convenient positions in Europe for the next round in the battle for world power. [The writer has just told us that the Soviet Army was on its way to bringing democracy to all of Europe, and the only reasons the Allies landed were to prevent this, and to allow fascism to survive by preventing the Soviets from annihilating it. Ok, realising that there is some minimum amount of intelligence on the net, i'll try to curtail my explantions.] General Omar Bradley, who was in command of a large U.S. force, described the purpose of the Normandy landing thus: "To avoid chaos on the continent it would have been necessary for us to mount such forces as we had, cross the Channel at once, move on into Germany, disarm its troops, and seize control of the nation." [Excuse me, i can't resist making a comment here. When Bradley said this, he was, in fact, describing a reason for NOT having a Normandy landing.] When the landing was made Eisenhower ordered the French to cease their armed resistance to the German occupationists. General Koenig issued a similar demand on behalf of the French National Committee. A cable from him to representatives of the Committee in France said: "Since it is impossible to supply arms and munitions at present, reduce, I repeat, reduce, to the minimum all guerrilla activities." [I have no doubt that the Koenig quote is accurate. Even LeClerc and DeGaulle (grudgingly) requested the same thing.] In effect, the French patriots were told to terminate their uprising and to obey the German authorities. This was an unmitigated betrayal of the French people, a secret war against the nation. In the west of Europe Germany had no more than 60 divisions, of which only 9 were infantry and 1 panzer division under Field Marshal Rommel were stationed in Normandy, that is, near the scene of the invasion. Furthermore, the German divisions in Western Europe were more than 30 per cent under strength, and most of their personnel were soldiers of the upper age brackets. They had a reduced supply of armaments and as little as 300 warplanes in Normandy. Subsequently, the air arm was doubled. [Note 1] The United States and Britain, who had not yet engaged in any full-scale fighting, assigned a very large force for the invasion... [The paragraph finishes with statistics on the allied forces. This article started out as just some excerpts, but i decided to fill it in because the chapter isn't that long. Now i see i'm already over 200 lines, so i'll just leave the excerpts from here on.] ... Admiral Ramsey, who commanded the Allied fleet, said that "the Channel crossing was fantastically unmolested". [Note that this is the only mention of the Channel crossing. And it is embedded in talk of the invasion. This gives the impression that he said: the INVASION was fantastically unmolested.] ... In spite of this the landing operation was behind the time- table. ... French patriots who defied the orders of Eisenhower and Koenig rendered the Anglo-American landing in Northern France effective assistance. Forty-two towns and hundreds of villages were liberated by the Communist-led francs-tireurs in the proximity of the Anglo- American Normany beachhead. This helped the Allies consolidate and extend their staging area. Eisenhower admitted grudgingly that the partisans had been "of inestimable value in the campaign..." ... In spite of the favorable conditions, the Anglo-American advance was very slow, averaging no more than four kilometers a day. The U.S. and British policymakers were reluctant to launch a large-scale offensive, for that would have prejudiced Geman-fascist resistance to the Soviet advance. This Anglo-American procrastination enabled the German Command to deploy its troops freely from the west to the Soviet-Geman front. For this reason, too, coupled with the desire to spare Anglo-American property in Germany, Allied air raids did not strike at the war industries, but at the inhabitants of the German cities. ... British and American propaganda went out of its way to exaggerate the effect of Allied strategic air raids on Germany. In effect, these bombings were not crucial to the outcome of the war.... [Still writing about the air raids, the author uses some German propaganda, himself, in the sentence which follows] In retaliation, Germany employed guided missles to strike at Britain from the air.... [So there you have it, an estimated 60% of everything the Soviet Union has to say about the invasion, from purpose, preparation, landing, and advance thru France, Belgium, Holland and Germany. No mention of any French, or other troops at all. This, in a 550 page book purported to give the history of WWII. The author, in the same chapter, now jumps to a discussion of the attempted assassination of Hitler, 20 July, 1944. Exceprts from this, and the discussion of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, will be found in my message which follows.] Note 1 - The author is fairly accurate here; he's only short by about a factor of two, according to ref.1 pp238-242. In map VI of the same ref, i count 10 static and reserve, 5 attack and 3 panzer division, a total of 18, in the Normandy area on 6 June. But to give you an idea of the significance of these numbers, let me quote from ref 1 p240, refering to the 3 panzer divisions in Normandy on the morning of the invasion (Panzer Lehr Division was brought in from the South during the day). "All the panzer divisions were thus much larger than their American counter- parts, the 1st SS being more than twice as large.". Also, remember that Rundstedt had partially implemented a strategy of mobility, keeping forces south of Normandy so they could quickly get to wherever they were neede most. But he not only threw these into the offensives. Quoting from ref 2, p31: "To obtain this hoped-for disposition, the Germans had reinforced the battle area in Normandy by virtually depleteing by 1 July their reserve in the West." And therein lies one of the primary reasons for thesmall advances made by the Allies eary on. The Germans threw everything they had(save the LVth Army) at the Allies to try to push them back into the sea. The Allies had to fight almost all the German forces in France to get the first 30 kilometers. After they finally broke out, west of St. Lo, the Allies couldn't run fast enough to catch the remaining Germans fleeing across France. ref 1. - The United States Army in World War II The European Theater of Operations Cross-Channel Attack ref 2. - The United States Army in World War II The European Theater of Operations Breakout and Persuit Both books may be purchased at the U.S. Govn Bookstores