Vey often we hear about how the Germans fought a “two-front war” during WW2. This is true but very often Hollywood and video games skew the fact that it only became a fight on two fronts deep into 1944. Images from “D-Day” are so full in our minds that even during movies featuring ancient warfare, or pirates from the age of sail, we often see “resisted landings” where one party has to storm a beach against arrows and spear rather than machine guns. This reinterpretation of D-Day happens again-and-again in the media. The Battle for Normandy was inspiring and “visually impressive” but did the opening of a second front really have the explosive effect that that our history textbooks tell us?
The map tells all
If we look at the map below of the European Theatre as it stood in October of 1943 we can see a better picture of the reality of the fight against Fascism.
Considering that “Operation Overlord”, the plan for the Brits and Americans to begin the fight against the Nazis on continental Europe was only enacted in August of 1944, that means that the Soviets were fighting one-on-one against the Germans all alone for years already by that point.
The Battle of Stalingrad ended on February 2nd 1943. Many historians see this as the turning point in the fight against Hitler from which he could never recover. This is true, but even a full year after this critical battle had ended the Soviet Union’s allies were still quite far from attacking Germany proper.
Ultimately, they chose the much softer target of fighting the Germans “in the colonies” in North Africa and then pushing into militarily incompetent Italy. The Italians were a far cry from the Third Reich’s forces in terms of resources, training, equipment and most importantly, motivation.
Image above: in about two months the Red Army liberated thousands of square kilometers from the Japanese.
In the same way the Russians found themselves lonely on the Eastern Front, the Americans experienced a similar situation in the Pacific, where no British or Soviet support was coming for quite some time. After the fall of Berlin however, a second front was opened against the resourceless Japanese in Manchuria by the Red Army. Tokyo’s men were utterly crushed swiftly by battle-hardened Soviet forces. Unlike hesitant Churchill the Russians immediately opened a “second front” to help out the Americans after Nazi Germany capitulated without hesitation.
Churchill was not much of a friend to the USSR
According to an official recording of a conversation between Stalin and Churchill, that took place on November 30th, 1943, Churchill, who is seen as one leaders of the triumphant great three powers, was less than optimistic about the idea of actually fighting the Germans in Germany”.
“Churchill replied that this operation (Operation Overlord) will certainly take place, but on the condition that the enemy cannot have a greater number of troops than the British and Americans do (at that time). If, for example, the Germans can transfer to France 30 or 40 divisions, he, Churchill, does not think that the landing could be successful. He, Churchill, is not afraid of the landing itself, but he is afraid of what will happen in 30 or 40 days (afterwards). But if the Russian armies will continue to tie up the Germans fighting on their front, and the British and Americans can pull them back to Italy and perhaps Yugoslavia, and if, maybe Turkey will also enter the war, then Churchill thinks that you can be sure of success. The Germans in that case will not have enough troops to move them to the West.”
As you can see Churchill only wanted to open up a second front under nearly ideal conditions. On the one hand, he could have been putting the lives of his men first, on the other hand it looks like wanted to walk away a winner against Berlin on the backs of dead Russians. Is this Britain first, soulless opportunism, or “preplanning” for the Cold War? That is up to you, but the key thing is that Churchill did not want to make any moves to fight the Nazis until the situation was perfectly acceptable to him. What an amazing ally!
The death race was on
After successfully landing in Normandy, which did take amazing planning, effort and sacrifice, the race to Berlin began. General George S. Patton, the Third Army Commander even stated that the U.S. and British needed to make a “sprint to Berlin” to get there before their future Cold War enemy would. Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges the First Army Commander was the first Allied force leader to reach the Elbe River (April 12th, 1945). Just 50 miles from Berlin, he believed they could take the capital themselves quickly if given the order. Churchill ironically after carefully and slowly waiting to land was a big advocate to take the Berlin with haste to use it as leverage later. This was somewhat prophetic as Berlin became a major “game token” during the entire Cold War.
Image above: Eisenhower’s strategy for American forces won out in the end
It was future President Eisenhower who called off any potential Patton “sprint” or the idea of taking Berlin by force for any reason. Casualty estimates for such an operation were enormous in his opinion and during the Yalta Conference the city was already given away to the Soviets. It was off the table, so why fight for it? Taking out a softer southern Germany proved a more reasonable mission that would allow them to win big gains without making Stalin into an enemy or competitor. Not every major figure in the West was thrilled with the idea of starting a new Cold War after 1945. Eisenhower’s more humane and respectful view towards the Russians won out in the end.
“Operation Overlord” proved to be “realpolitik” in action
The might of Britain and especially the USA could have broken into Northern France at any point during the war. There was no strategic need to wait till the Nazis started to fall apart in 1944. Northern France was not that well defended in general and by the time Stalingrad was lost by Hitler’s forces he could have never withstood an assault from the West.
Cynical Churchill wanted both the Nazis and the Soviets to be “softened up” before making any moves onto German territory. Who knows how many millions of lives could have been saved if the most evil regime in human history had actually been forced to fight simultaneously on two fronts from the start of the war. Perhaps we should look at the war in Europe as a war on two-fronts only after doom for Hitler was already hanging in the air.
Although people like Eisenhower and Roosevelt who clearly put “America First” were able to keep their word to the Soviets sadly it was the Truman and Churchill types that quickly dominated the political spectrum of the world after the end of WWII.