- 20 Jul 2010 21:55
#13451603
I was under the impression that a large contingent of the Germans encircled in the Falaise gap actually did escape.
I also do not think, had the Germans been able to prevent the gap from forming, there would have been any significant strategic change to the Normandy situation.
The entire reason the gap existed at all was because Hitler ordered Field Marshal Kluge to launch a hopeless counter-attack against the Allies at Normandy, which essentially was a miserable failure that saw most of the panzer divisions in the western theatre bleed dry, while the Allies essentially broke out left and right.
Germany was incapable, Falaise or not, of closing the allied beach head.
As for the Soviet Union dominating all of Europe had Normandy failed, I wouldn't be so sure. Many historians believe, had Germany remained in the defensive (e.g. no battle of the bulge), that the war would have dragged on for much longer in the East.
In other words, the allies would have probably attempted a second landing, or prioritized the Italian campaign to the point that, no, the Soviet Union would not have occupied all of Western Europe.\
Besides, who had the bomb?
- WHD
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