Congratulations to Mr. Prewitt. It should be noted, however, that France’s highest order of merit is called the Legion of Honour (Légion d’honneur), not the Legion of Armour, and also that France doesn’t actually have knighthoods in the same sense as Britain does. “Chevalier” (knight) is indeed one of the Legion of Honour’s five levels, and the name is a holdover from the days when France still had an aristocracy, but the French nobility system went out the window with the French Revolution. I once saw a series of amusing cartoons depicting what life in France would be like today if the Bourbon monarchy hadn’t fallen, and one of them showed an irate air traveler standing at the ticket counter of “Royal Air France” and telling the ticket agent “But I’m a baron and I have a confirmed reservation!” The agent replies, “I’m sorry, sir, but the Duke of So-and-so has precedence over you, so we gave him your seat.” In fairness, the same sort of thing actually happens in real-life republican France. A few years ago, there was scandal involving one of the major D-Day anniversaries (I think it was the 50th one), when the French government contacted various hotels in Normany and appropriated some of their existing reservations so that various French officials could have rooms for the event. Some of those rooms, however, had been reserved by foreign veterans of the D-Day invasion. When the story broke on the front page of French newspapers (under such headlines as “Our Liberators Insulted!”), public opinion was outraged and the French government beat a hasty retreat. The prevailing editorial opinion over this affair was: Do this to our own citizens if you want, but don’t do this to the heroes who ended the occupation of France.
Favorite WWII Theaters
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You kind of forgott the battle of Berlin 45.
This was the most intriguing theater of the war, and also this small area had the largest consentration of military forces and firepower in the history of wars, and the largest numbers of casualties ever, from january to april several millions were killed in this theater. Also this theater had a possibility to start an even larger war with commies against democracy. If Patton had won the race to Dahlem Institute in Berlin, it is likely that Stalin had attacked the western allies. During march 18 it was dogfights between US and Russian fighters over Berlin, and Ike backed off and let Stalin take Berlin. Butt it was a close call. If FDR had left some months before, and with Truman in command, nobody knows. In this time the commies had 15 millions soldiers and the western allies had 16 million soldiers in Europe, making this new war the Barbarossa campaign in 1941 looking like a skirmish.
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You kind of forgott the battle of Berlin 45.
This was the most intriguing theater of the war, and also this small area had the largest consentration of military forces and firepower in the history of wars, and the largest numbers of casualties ever, from january to april several millions were killed in this theater. Also this theater had a possibility to start an even larger war with commies against democracy. If Patton had won the race to Dahlem Institute in Berlin, it is likely that Stalin had attacked the western allies. During march 18 it was dogfights between US and Russian fighters over Berlin, and Ike backed off and let Stalin take Berlin. Butt it was a close call. If FDR had left some months before, and with Truman in command, nobody knows. In this time the commies had 15 millions soldiers and the western allies had 16 million soldiers in Europe, making this new war the Barbarossa campaign in 1941 looking like a skirmish.
Nice post, I consider the Battle of Berlin as the closing battle of Eastern Front.
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I love them all so much! :cry:
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I love them all so much! :cry:
That is only because your family was not a victim
Where is your family from? I would like to hear their story.
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I’ve always liked Dday so the war in the west. Op. Overlord, market gaurden, paris liberations, battle of the buldge, the rhineland battles……all of it. Also the eastern front just cause of the huge massive armys. Also cause stalingrad known as the turnning point against germany, leningrad, kursk, and the USSR being the one to ultamatly take berlin.
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You kind of forgott the battle of Berlin 45.
This was the most intriguing theater of the war, and also this small area had the largest consentration of military forces and firepower in the history of wars, and the largest numbers of casualties ever, from january to april several millions were killed in this theater. Also this theater had a possibility to start an even larger war with commies against democracy. If Patton had won the race to Dahlem Institute in Berlin, it is likely that Stalin had attacked the western allies. During march 18 it was dogfights between US and Russian fighters over Berlin, and Ike backed off and let Stalin take Berlin. Butt it was a close call. If FDR had left some months before, and with Truman in command, nobody knows. In this time the commies had 15 millions soldiers and the western allies had 16 million soldiers in Europe, making this new war the Barbarossa campaign in 1941 looking like a skirmish.
Yikes what a waste of lives…anyone in their right mind could see the war was over.
Your numbers are off–British intelligence estimated a Russian advantage of 2-1 on land. See
http://www.history.neu.edu/PRO2/ -
The Pacific naval campaign…Germany could have learned a few lessons from America on how to run a submarine campaign!
Italy…nearly every Allied nation, from Brazilians and ANZACs to Free Poles and French, participated in this theater.
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The Pacific naval campaign…Germany could have learned a few lessons from America on how to run a submarine campaign!
Italy…nearly every Allied nation, from Brazilians and ANZACs to Free Poles and French, participated in this theater.
I thinks its hard to compare the American and German submarine campaigns. Both theaters were completely different.
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@ABWorsham:
I thinks its hard to compare the American and German submarine campaigns. Both theaters were completely different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Atlantic_(1939–1945)
Allied losses in the Atlantic (1939-1945)
Approx. 3500 Merchant vessels
175 warships3675 total
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_submarines_in_the_Pacific_War
Japanese losses in the Pacific (1941-1945)
2117 Merchant vessels
611 warships2727 total
The Germans sunk more merchants and more tonnage, but the Allies managed more kills per year, and were far more effective at destroying escorts.
The US managed this while also creating the largest surface navy ever seen, as well as it’s operations in the Atlantic.
The theaters might have been different, but the end results are easily comparible.
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North Africa has to be my favorite theater of operations. Nobody talks about it, but the whole Western Front depended upon having a secure Mediterranean & North Africa to prevent the Axis forces from out-flanking the Western Allies. Besides, what could possibly be cooler than the SAS’ Long Range Desert Group?
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I like them all actually…each theater of war had its own atmosphere…
The Eastern Front: Genocide on a grand scale…the greatest tank battles of the war (KURSK, KHARKOV) and Operation Barbarossa…the ultimate attack plan…and of course Stalingrad…the ultimate turning point of the war
The Western Front: From the greatest evacuation in history (Dunkirk) to the greatest invasion in history (Normandy) to the greatest gamble in history (Bulge)…nothing like fighting on the Western Front
The North African Front: Nothing like watching a Desert Fox claim victory wherever he went…ultimate battles such as Tobruk, Kasserine Pass, and El Alamein…and how British General Montgomery finally showed his brilliance…
The Mediterranean Front: The drive under Europe’s soft underbelly…Sicilly, Salerno, Anzio…the great Italian Campaign and the word PATTON becomes a household name…
The Battle of the Atlantic: U-boats, BISMARCK, SCHARNHORST, Convoy PQ-17, Operation Torch…need i say more?
The Pacific Theater: Pearl Harbor, Midway, the Solomons, Leyte, to name a few basically the greatest naval war in history…
The China-Burma-India Theater: The Burma road must stay open…the Flying Tigers and China’s plight against the Japanese…the most intense fighting in the Pacific War
I know u only wanted a favorite,but where to choose…
BTW…LETS GIVE OUR THANKS TO THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO FOUGHT AND GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THESE THEATERS OF WAR…FOR WITHOUT THEM…WE WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO CHOOSE OUR FAVORITES
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