Um somebody please chime in on this...
Why did D-day even happen?
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Lucky13
Forum Mascot
So you think that those fighting on the westernfront would reached Berlin first if there hadn't been a pact?
No what I am getting at is the Western Allies did not invade because of a Pact. Russia wanted the western allies to invade northern France as early as 1941 and pressured England to do so.
At the Tehran Conference the Western Allies agreed among other things that the Second Front would be in May 1944. The conference also redefined the borders of Poland and gave Russia sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. This conference however stated only the obvious. The Western powers were going to invade, but only when they thought the time was right, now when the Soviets wanted them to.
The next conference was the Yalta Conference. Among other things it devided Post War Germany into 4 different occupied zones and Berlin as well into 4 zones.
At the Tehran Conference the Western Allies agreed among other things that the Second Front would be in May 1944. The conference also redefined the borders of Poland and gave Russia sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. This conference however stated only the obvious. The Western powers were going to invade, but only when they thought the time was right, now when the Soviets wanted them to.
The next conference was the Yalta Conference. Among other things it devided Post War Germany into 4 different occupied zones and Berlin as well into 4 zones.
Lucky13
Forum Mascot
Aaah.....
HealzDevo
Staff Sergeant
Which was a bad decision but just goes to show how blind Roosevelt really was to Stalin...
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102first_hussars
Tech Sergeant
He was a little too eagre to make friends, but at the same time we needed Russia
HealzDevo
Staff Sergeant
Did we? Russia would have fought on anyway, whether the US and Britain were friendly to her or not. Stalin doesn't seem the type to have let a little thing like the US or Britain not giving her aid stand in the way of revenge. Stalin would still have continued on to crush Germany but the end position may have changed with Russia being in a less strong position to threaten Europe...
That was not the point of being friendly to Russia. The point was to end the war and not having to fight Russia after Germany was gone.
syscom3
Pacific Historian
No that was not a typo. Russia began pressuring England and the other nations (Free French, Free Polish, Canada, etc. that were in England) to open up a Western Front in 1941.
HealzDevo
Staff Sergeant
Did it actually work? No, it didn't. The Cold War actually proves it didn't quite work that way. By being a bit more cold shouldery to Russia, it is doubtful that Russia would have been in such a strong position as it was. The saviour of the Allies at that time was that they were the only ones with atomic weapons. Therefore the US and England never had to face up to their mistakes. It is sad though that it took so long for the Allies to face the Russians after WWII. Especially when they had so many trained men and materials which could have been used to stop the Russians sweeping the majority of Eastern Europe into their grasp. It was a war with Russia by another name. The fact that it never became hot was due more to the lack of a Russian atomic bomb in the early part, rather than any skill on the Allies part. By the Cuban Missile Crisis it was clear that Russia in any war would have to resort to nuclear weapons to be able to compete with Allied technology at that time. It was more due to the fear by Russian leaders that if they pressed the button, they wouldn't survive it, that stopped the Cold War becoming hot than anything else...
Neither side was in a realistic position to fight each other in 1945....
HealzDevo
Staff Sergeant
Actually the Soviets were in quite a reasonable position to fight with how much territory they gained. Stalin I reckon would have given the order but for the threat of atomic weapons. Stalin doesn't seem the type of person that would let a mere imbalance of conventional weapons stop him, however, the threat of what the atomic bomb did to Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have been the only thing pausing him...
Oh boy, there is more to fighing a war then territory gained....
