[ASLML] Inside The Third Reich

[Sam Belcher]

Jim "Educated in Canada" McLeod wrote: 

> I just finished reading this book last night.  Going on the assumption
> that what Speer wrote is mostly true, I have the following observations;

<big snip>

> [conspiracy mode ON]
> 
> There are the Allies, plugging away through 1941 to early 1943.  The
> desert war is a total sideshow in the big scheme of things.  The Allie's
> deep stratigic thinkers know that Hitler can't win the war versus the
> Soviets after Stalingrad.  The Allies now are looking at postwar Europe
> and their enemy is the USSR as the nazis are done.  The Allies need the
> Russians to grind down the Germans and they, the Allies, also need the
> Germans to grind down the Russians.  IMHO, that is why the Allies
> avoided the invasion of France until June '44.  Invading Italy was an
> appeasement to the Russians and the Allies would have been farther ahead
> to have not invaded Italy at all.

I disagree. The USA wanted to invade Europe in '43 but the British were
concerned about launching an invasion before it could be done with over
whelming force. The Brit's won that point at the conference.... And I
disagree that the allies "Knew" that Germany couldn't win after Stalingrad.
Both the Germans AND the other allies were kept in the dark about the true
strength of Stalin's army. Neither the Germans, nor the allies thought that
the Soviets would win. In fact, the allies didn't initially send much aid to
the Russians because they expected them to be over-run. 

OTOH, the allies could not have won without the Russians - at least not
without using the atom bomb in Europe.  Think about -that- alternate history
a bit...

> IMO, Ol' Eisenhower had his sights on the US presidency by the time of
> WWII.  His hands off approach to the ground war in France after the
> D-Day landings may indicate that he:
> 
> - knew without doubt that the Allies would win.

I disagree...

> - knew that the families of dead American soldiers might not be so keen
> to vote for candidate Ike'.  His broad front strategy hints in that
> direction as do the antics of his "party all the time" HQ.  They knew
> they would win so why push the issue.  Keep US losses low to help Ike's
> image with voters but lets meet the Russians in mid-Germany for the next
> war so France doesn't get trashed again.  The A-bomb's dropped in Japan
> were in a way, the final test of that weapon for the benefit of the
> Russians.

The fact that Eisenhower wanted to minimize allied (particularly US)
casualties is evidence that he knew he'd win and that he was already running
for the White House? I disagree. 

The A-Bomb was dropped on Japan because the US wanted to minimize casualties
(especially US casualties). Revisionist history will not change that...

Sam