Lecture 36: Recent & Not-So-Decisive Decisive Battles
point in World War II—the moment when the fall of Nazi Germany
was assured.
o The opening of the second front certainly hastened the end of
the war, but a good case can be made that the turning point
against the Nazis
had happened when
the Germans were
defeated at Moscow
and Stalingrad.o It is clear that the
Russians would have
continued their drive
toward Germany, that
the Germans would
have been unable to
stop them, and that
the Russians would
not have been content
with anything less
than the destruction
and subjugation of
Nazi Germany.o Even after D-Day had
thoroughly established
the Western Front,
Hitler still viewed the
Russians as the main threat, and the vast majority of German
resources continued to be deployed on the Eastern Front.x If D-Day was not a decisive factor in defeating the Nazis, however,
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was the annihilation of the German Air Force by the Allied powers.
The thousands of aircraft destroyed by the Western Allies might
well have made a pivotal difference had they been sent to the east.
Another vital contribution to Germany’s defeat was the British+LWOHU¶V*HUPDQ\ZDVSUREDEO\
already doomed by the time D-Day
occurred; although the Allied
invasion certainly hastened the end
of the war, it was not a decisive
turning point.© Getty Images/Photos.com/Thinkstock.