What was your favorite WWII battle of all time? Mine would have to be against Poland, when we wipped them, no offense to anyone who is Polish, it's just my favorite battle.
Yup. Unfortunately, too many people think it was the Americans who beat Germany in WWII. America entered the European conflict to simply prevent the Soviets from moving into Western Europe and to speed up the defeat.
The Soviets lost 27 MILLION people in the war. While the US fought small battles in Europe, the Eastern front saw millions of troops versus millions of troops in several battles. Approximately 80% of all casualties of the European Theater were on the Eastern Front. By the time the US invaded France, the Soviets were beyond Warsaw and moving closer to Germany. The Soviets were the victors in Europe. The US was there to simply hasten victory and prevent the spread of Communism.
Ya favorite is a really weird word to use. I favor no war. To say this war is my favorite, sounds like you are crazy. How could you enjoy people getting slaughtered? But from all of war history I do prefer to learn, read, and watch things on World War II. I find it very interesting.
To say you favor the battle against Poland doesn't make any sense. There wasn't one battle. A large part of the war took place in Poland, and it is Where World War II began.
TheListman knows his stuff on this topic, or at least from what he's said so far.
Anyways, I don't favor any battles because they were all devastating. But i do recognize that some where more decisive in the outcome of the war.
It was highly likely that Hitler would have broken through the Russian lines if it weren't for... the Greeks! The unexpected fierce resistance they put up diverted 7 German divisions to Greece at a pivotal point in the battle. If this hadn't occured Stalingrad could have been a German victory. On Stalin's death bed he claimed his one regret was that he never thanked the Greeks for their contribution.
Yeah, everyone you ask about WWII, they will give you the same response: "Yeah, America kicked the German's and Jap's butt in WWII. Where in reality it was really the Soviets, that really won the war, and not America or Britain, they helped, and had some small victories, but the Soviets had way more than them.
Yah, I regret putting the thread name starting with favorite, and having battle follow it, sorry about that chaps.
I did not know that Woody, my grandfather and great uncles never passed on any info like this in their journals, or to my relatives. But that is very intersting, I knew that Greeks did some fighting, but I didn't know it was 7 divisions that they fought.
Being half Greek, Hellas' history is a prticular interest of mine.
Here are just some WW2 facts and quotes on the Greeks. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Greece was the only army in WW2 that was forced to confront the armies of four countries simoultaneously: Albania, Italy, Germany and Bulgaria. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Duration of resistance in days:
Greece 219 Norway 61 France 43 Poland 30 Belgium 18 Holland 4 Yugoslavia 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Greek losses caused by occupying powers.
Albanians 1125 Italians 8000 Bulgarians 25000 Germans 50000 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Losses in Population Percentages
Greece 10% Soviet Union 2.8% Holland 2.2% France 2% Poland 1.8% -------------------------------------------------------------------- On the 10 April 1941, after the Greek capitulation to Germany, the northern forts of Greece surrendered.
The Germans expressed their admirationto Greek soldiers and declared that they were honoured and proud to have as their adversary such an army and requested that the Greek commander inspect the German troops in a demonstartion of honour and recognition.
The German flag was raised only after the complete withdrawal of the Greek army. -------------------------------------------------------------------- A German Luwtwaffe officer declared to the commander of the Eastern Macedonian division group, Liuetenant General Dedes that the Greek army was the first on which the Stuka planes did not cause panic.
Your soldiers instead of fleeing frantically as they did in France and Poland, were shooting at us from their positions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Quotes on/about the greeks
For the sake of historical truth I must verify that the Greeks of allthe adversaries who confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death
Adolph Hitler
The word heroism I am afraid does not render the least of those acts of self sacrifice of the Greeks, which were the defining factor in the victorious outcome of the common struggle of the nations, during WW2, for the human freedom and dignity. If it were not for the Greeks and their courage, the outcome of WW2 would be determined.
Winston Churchill
Until now we used to say that the Greeks fight like heroes. Now we shall say: The heroes fight like Greeks.
Winston Churchill
I am sorry because I am getting old and I shall not live long to thank the Greek People, whose resistance decided WW2.
Joseph Stalin
If the Russian people managed to raise resistance at the doors of Moscow to halt and reverse the German torrent, they owe it to the Greek people, who delayed the German divisions during the time they could bring us to our knees.
Georgy Constantinovich Zhoukov
Regardless of what the future historians shall say, what we can say now, is that Greece gave Mussolini an unforgettable lesson, that she was the motivation for the revolution in Yugoslavia, that she held the Germans in the mainland and in Crete for six weeks, that she upset the chronological order of all German High Command's plans and thus brought a general reverse of the entire course of the war and we won.
Sir Robert Antony Eden
It would not be an exaggeration to say that Greece upset the plans of Germany in their entirety forcing her to postpone the attack on Russia 6 weeks. We wonder what would have been the Soviet Union's position without Greece.
Sir Harold Leofric George ALexander
I am unable to give the proper breadth of gratitude I feel towards the heroic resistance of the people and leaders of Greece.
Charles De Gaul
Greece is the symbol of the tortured, bloodied but live Europe. Never a defeat was so honorable for those who suffered it.
Maurice Schumann
You fought unarmed and won, small against big. We owe you gratitude, because you gave us time to defend oursleves. As Russians and as people, we thank you
Moscow radio station
The war with Greece proved that nothing is firm in the military and that surprise always awaits us
Benito Mussolini
On the 28th of October 1940 Greece was given a deadline of three hours to decide on war or peace but even if a three day or three week or three year were given, the response would have been the same. The Greeks taught dignity throughout the centuries. When the entire world had lost all hope, the Greek people dared to question the invincibility of the German monster raising it the proud spirit of freedom
Franklin D Roosevelt
Because we, contrary to the barbarians, do not count the enemy in battle
Awesome work Woody, I have to give credit where credit is due, I'd say that the MVP of WWII would have to be the Greeks, they fought hard and everyone should thank them
My two favorites are the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Berlin, two of the bloodiest battles ever fought in the history of wars. In Iwo Jima, the Americans fiercely defeated the Japanese and put their flag at the top The Battle Of Berlin: It's 1945, and the Germans were in tough times, the Russians came to overpower them, thus the Battle of Berlin began. The Russians were defeating the Germans (keep in mind the Russians were pulled out of WWI) and Hitler had enough, so him and some of his followers committed suicide
True, those were two of the bloodiest battles ever fought in WWII. It's correct that the Americans bravely fought and defeated the Japanese, and then raised their American flag on Iwo Jima.
The battle of Berlin was a battle that Germany knew it was going to loose, so Hitler and his followers knew this, and decided to committ suicide. A few days after Hitler committed suicide, Germany surrendered.
So.. you may be wondering that even after the Americans defeated the Japanese so recent ago, and they are friendly with us, that is because they were communists back then, and they were being oppressed by him.
They were being ruled by an evil communist who fancied himself a god. After some thoughts, ones that escape my mind, he bombed Pearl Harbor. We knew of this communist false god, so instead of going "Total War" on the Japanese, we instead took him out of power (by bombing the two cities that contained his power). We put him in a JAPANESE jail cell, so the oppressed peasants could taste their own sweet victory, and they have us to thank for it.
I have guys "thank me for what I did", and that just gives me a laugh every now and then. I'm going to guess that when he thanked me, he was thanking the U.S., so it all works out in the end =)
True, the United States dropped 2 atom bombs, one on Nagasaki and the other on Hiroshima, and just with those two bombs, the United States killed between 100,000 to 750,000 innocent civilians, and that crumbled the Japanese government.
That of course, unfortunately, was necessary. If we came in there with just soldiers and tried to invade, they would make our soldiers prisoners of war, which of course we weren't going to do that. After all, we had to test out Little Boy and Fat Man, so those two were the perfect places to put them. =) (men...)
The Japanese would have fought to the last man. Their odd variation of the Bushido code they abided to made them fanatical opponents. When someone has no regard for his own life, it is extremely difficult to wage a war against him.
what the Japanese government ad even President Truman didn't know was that the 2 a-bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the only working a-bombs that the US had at the time. If Japan had not surrendered, it would have been months until another working a-bomb could be made.
My personnal favorite battle of the second great war is the battle on the normandy beaches to eb exact on Omaha i lost three great uncles on those beaches and i am proud to be able to say they died with pride fighting for their country.
True, Fat Man and Little Boy were the names of the two atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan, and statistics showed that if the Americans were to fight Japan on Japan, it would have cost the Americans 1,000,000 lives of either their marines or sailors, which would be catastrophic. So in retrospect, dropping the A-bombs, was really the only decision that America had
Ah, Omaha beach, that seems to be a favorite with Americans, mainly because that was one of the two beaches that the Americans stormed, (the other being Utah)
