Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
The defeat of Germany would have accomplished both of those. Coming up through Italy would have accomplished that without risking a million drowned in the English Channel.
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Are you forgeting that we, in fact, did try to come up thru Italy? A narrow and mountanious peninsula, with no room to manuever, made for rough slogging. Two years after landing (at the end of the war) we still were within Italy's borders.
Eisenhower correctly decided that the main push should be the direct one. Look at a map of Europe.
Invading at Normandy also had the benefit of being close to our supply lines and far from the Germans, and close to the bases of our tactical air forces. Neither of that was true about Italy, Greece, or anyplace else in what Sir Winston called "the soft underbelly."
(more wisdom from the closed thread)
