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Your favorite WW2 Battle

Jredbaron96

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It sounds weird to say "Your favorite battle", but I can't think of a better way of putting it.

Simply, which WW2 battle do you find the most interesting, or the one you like to learn about most?

For me it has to be Kursk. It was the end for the Ostheer, the sign that Germany could never hope to achieve victory on the Eastern Front.
 
Personally I like to cite both Battles of El Alamein because its a very clear example of where logistics all but decided the outcome before the fight begun. Due to British superiority at sea the fuel Germany and Italy needed to maintain their offensive east was simply not available, in addition the fuel and other supplies that arrived in Africa via Tripoli, Benghazi, or Tobruk were hundreds of miles from the front and the transportation infrastructure east out of Libya was extremely poor.

Basically Rommel was forced to continue to fight forward and use captured logistics to continue his advance, but tactical ability can only take you so far in this regard as captured supplies were never enough. So while even if Rommel had been able to win a tactical victory at El Alamein, his logistics situation would have made it impossible to advance further unless the British had simply refused to fight.
 
Battle of the Bulge because my Great Grandpa was in it, its the only battle he fought in and he had a bomb explode near him that caused shrapnel to be emerging from his skin the rest of his life. However he did well while he was there, and got a purple heart along some smaller honors. I have one of his little metal uniform "decorations" or badges that says "No task too great" on it. It's really cool being able to look at that and say that one of my kin wore that in one of the most important battles in history. It's neat.
 
Personally I like to cite both Battles of El Alamein because its a very clear example of where logistics all but decided the outcome before the fight begun. Due to British superiority at sea the fuel Germany and Italy needed to maintain their offensive east was simply not available, in addition the fuel and other supplies that arrived in Africa via Tripoli, Benghazi, or Tobruk were hundreds of miles from the front and the transportation infrastructure east out of Libya was extremely poor.

Basically Rommel was forced to continue to fight forward and use captured logistics to continue his advance, but tactical ability can only take you so far in this regard as captured supplies were never enough. So while even if Rommel had been able to win a tactical victory at El Alamein, his logistics situation would have made it impossible to advance further unless the British had simply refused to fight.

Outnumbering the enemy 2-to-1 didn't hurt, either.
 
Stalingrad.
 
Hurtgen Forest.
 
It sounds weird to say "Your favorite battle", but I can't think of a better way of putting it.

Simply, which WW2 battle do you find the most interesting, or the one you like to learn about most?

For me it has to be Kursk. It was the end for the Ostheer, the sign that Germany could never hope to achieve victory on the Eastern Front.


Midway. from the needle in a haystack luck of finding the Japanese fleet to the sacrifice that led to victory-the Torpedo bombers losing an entire squadron but forcing the Japanese air cover down to the deck and leaving the Japanese Fleet wide open to the incoming waves of dive bombers that essentially won the naval war in the Pacific.
 
Operation Fall Weiss, or the Invasion of Poland.

The Treaty of Versailles, the rise of nationalism, the struggle between Fascism, Communism, and Democracy, the end of Imperialism, a sort of drama from the end of WWI to Late 1939, All culminating in the outbreak of the second world war.
 
Kursk, no doubt about it.
Simply epic, as in the clash of the titans
 
What's the fasination with Kursk? Aside from being the largest tank battle in history, there's nothing special about it.
 
Simply, which WW2 battle do you find the most interesting, or the one you like to learn about most?

Offensively, Case Yellow.
Devious, yet simple. Trick the enemy into believe you're going for a repeat of the Schlieffen plan, then hit him with a left hok while he's busy countering your feint.
Might not have worked a year later, but at the time it was perfect.

Defensively, Stalingrad.
Keeping the enemy occupied and wasting his strength, while you build up a force capable of destroying him.


Both battles are quite similar, really. Managing to entice your enemy into obsession with what is really a secondary force, long enough that your main strength can encircle and annihilate him.
Or to loosely quote: "When the strike of the falcon breaks his prey, it is because of timing and precision."
 
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el alamein because **** them we are Britain and we will stand our ground
 
It sounds weird to say "Your favorite battle", but I can't think of a better way of putting it.

Simply, which WW2 battle do you find the most interesting, or the one you like to learn about most?

For me it has to be Kursk. It was the end for the Ostheer, the sign that Germany could never hope to achieve victory on the Eastern Front.

Mine is when the 442nd rescued the "Lost Battalion" near Biffontaine. They lost many men doing it. If you recall, the 442nd was made up almost completely of Japanese-Americans, many of whose parents and other family members were in concentration camps in the U.S. It was the most highly decorated infantry regiment in the history of the United States. 21 medals of honor and so many Purple Hearts that they were known as "Purple Heart Battalion" ...
 
for me it is almost a tie between the Allied victory in El Alamein (first defeat of the desert fox) or the battle of Stalingrad where field marshall Paulus surrendered.
 
for me it is almost a tie between the Allied victory in El Alamein (first defeat of the desert fox) or the battle of Stalingrad where field marshall Paulus surrendered.

El Alamein signalled the turning of the tide!
 
El Alamein signalled the turning of the tide!

In the West it did, without the carnage in the East Germany would not have fallen that quickly (if at all). If Adolf had not decided to go for Lebensraum in the East (room to live) he might have actually won the war or managed to stay in power far after 1945.
 
Mine is when the 442nd rescued the "Lost Battalion" near Biffontaine. They lost many men doing it. If you recall, the 442nd was made up almost completely of Japanese-Americans, many of whose parents and other family members were in concentration camps in the U.S. It was the most highly decorated infantry regiment in the history of the United States. 21 medals of honor and so many Purple Hearts that they were known as "Purple Heart Battalion" ...

You should have just stuck to the PC element and left Biffontaine out of it.

The Four-Four-Two was used as cannon fodder, because the commander of the 36th ID wasn't going to risk white soldiers on a mission he believed was doomed from the git-go.
 
You should have just stuck to the PC element and left Biffontaine out of it.

The Four-Four-Two was used as cannon fodder, because the commander of the 36th ID wasn't going to risk white soldiers on a mission he believed was doomed from the git-go.

if only the court of Nuremberg, would want to would punish all those responsible for atrocities,- the judges would only Russian, and two-thirds of the defendants would be responsible in English.
 
No it didn't! C'mon dude! LOL!

The tide turned on 6 Jun 44. It's an undisputed fact.

pick up a history book mate, its often reffered to as the turning point in World War two as it was the allies first victory against axis ground forces. By D-Day the Germans were already being pushed back on the eastern front and we were pushing through Italy.
 
No it didn't! C'mon dude! LOL!

The tide turned on 6 Jun 44. It's an undisputed fact.



Lol what?

Right, so after Kursk German forces were just falling back so they could get back to Berlin and celebrate?

Need to brush up on your history outside of the American perspective.
 
My father was in the Pacific during WWII.
Particular battles kind of ran together as he would put it.
But the Naval vs aerial battles were epic. Lose your plane, in the water. Lose your ship, in the water. It really was life or death.
 
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