Was Victory Inevitable after D Day?

[airbolt]

I have just been reading about the "Breakout" from the Beaches and how it took a lot longer than expected to break out of Normandy . Given that the Russians were advancing in the East was there ever a scenario where the Germans could have held out longer in the West than they did ? If that had happened , would the Russians have just kept going until they met the Allies a lot further West? Impossible questions perhaps but hopefully worthy of speculation.

[flaming]

Almost everything one sees or reads shows that the Germans did not hold out long enough in the West because Russia wasn't the walkover they expected. The Germans got hopelessly bogged down there being unprepared for the extreme cold apart from not having enough equipment. Lucky for us that they did step it down somewhat, wasn't it? Also, once the Allies started breaking through the Russians could have come on farther and faster from their theatre; they probably would have kept going.  A very different post-war picture could have emerged with the Iron Curtain being that much closer to ourselves. Liberation is only that if the rescuer withdraws after the fighting;  it is unlikely that Stalin would have given up any territory he went into.  What a near squeak it all was, given that we were drawing troops from the Dominions and that the Americans had come in.  Everyone had taken on too much at once and I think were fighting themselves into exhaustion;  I think, too, that we had a greater degree of luck.  I forget the numbers but Russia lost more people in WW2 than did all the other allies combined, I read somewhere.  I went to Czech Republic and Berlin not long after the Wall came down, and the Czechs had had their 'Velvet Revolution'.  It was incredible to see how they had been 'kept under' but they were all just learning the price one pays for freedom and the availability of consumer goods. It will be interesting to see what views you get on this thread.

[El D]

Look at the Ardennes offensive -Germany came very very close to causing massive trouble for the Allies supply lines and secure landing sites. The details elude me but I believe if they had not been so short of resources this might well have held up the advance for months. Although it must be considered that Germany hated the Soviets and would much rather have been conquered by the Allies, so perhaps they would have surrendered to us with Russia in Germany, who knows.

[flaming]

Strange that we can mull over it on PCs isn't it, when the troops on the ground hardly had a working field telephone betwen them, messengers struggling about on motorbikes with despatches, ages before people knew what really had happened   - such a tremendous lack of communication by our standards.  I have seen bits about the VE day 60 years anniversary currently seen on the 'box' (TV)  - some very good old film footage is being shown.