Lads, I want to know your opinions on which was the most dangerous moment of the war for the Allied cause. Please state your case after choosing; us mortals need some enlightening!
Bottom of my mind on a rainy day, mate, after the long awaited delivery of "The Most Dangerous Moment", by Michael Tomlinson Please feel free to propose other choices, so I can update the list. I'm sure Za will pop-up any minute now, with some suggestions regarding the Ostfront that I grossly overlooked
Why, it was in 12th July 1943, when the Red Army started Op. Kutuzov on the Northern shoulder of the Kursk salient, against 9th and 2nd Panzer Armies, and did not stop afterwards. Sorry, you did not specify whom the danger was directed to
personally i would think that june 6 44 was the most dangerous moment, if hitler had seen thru the allied deceptions and allowed the ground commanders to use their troops the way they wanted to, then the beaches would most likely have been held. And who knows how long it would have been before the allies could have been able to gather enough materials to try again, look how long it took to get the june 6th operation off the drawing board.
Warlord that period after the victory of Gen. O'Conner at Beda Fomm when the 4th Indian Division had been sent to Ethiopia - the New Zealanders and some Australians had been sent to Greece - the 7th Armoured Div was on the way back to Cairo for replenishment with other remnants of the battles - Rommel struck and wiped out the newly arrived 2nd Armoured div-stole our stores - then attacked Tobruk which fortunately held otherwise Rommel might have made it to Cairo before the 7th Armoured- shortly aferwards Gen.O'Conner -Gen. Neame V.C. - Big .Gen Combe joined Gen Carton de Wight in the POW cages- we were scratching the barrel bottom at that time and being clobbered in Greece - then Crete.. the miracle was Tobruk.... Cheers
Lads, I want to know your opinions on which was the most dangerous moment of the war for the Allied cause. Please state your case after choosing; us mortals need some enlightening! What about the lad[ies] Warlord? My answer is that it depends on the Allie. The collective were not not all Allies at the same time, for example, the Soviets and Germans were Allies until Germany launched Babarosa in June 1941. For the Norwegians, Danes, Dutch, Belgiques, and 'Frogs' it would be April to June 1940. For the Soviets it would be December 1942. For the Brits probably Battle of Britain time - September 1940 - because if we had been invaded we wouldn't have stood any earthly... For the Septics, once they had us Brits as Allies they were never in any danger. And I think the Allied invasions of Italy and NW Europe, and what happened afterwards were very important, for without them the Soviets would have kept going west and south, south west. All of mainland Europe would have been behind the Iron curtain. That would have been the biggest and most dangerous loss... Best, Steve.
I still think the " Battle Of Britain " period was the most dangerous, it was singularly responsible for the continuance of the war against Nazism. Should the defence of Britain have failed and Germany invaded, the conflict against Germany would have fizzled out, even with the invasion of the Soviet Union as Hitler would have had the resources to push harder, maybe even forcing an armistice ( obviously conjecture ) The USA would have focused on the Pacific, without a European ' base ', and left Hitler to his own devices.
I would opt for the U-Boat offensive as being the most dangerous period. It was Churchill's greatest worry and without the tide turning to the Allies in 1942, Britain would have been strangled.
23rd August 1939. The signing of the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop pact. Once Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany had agreed on how they were going to split up Europe, the danger was present. After that, the Allies had to come to terms with it and learn to deal with it.
The one I lived through and experienced.. After Dunkirk when we had nothing left to defend ourselves.
My vote went to England immediately after Dunkirk. As a callow youth, not yet 17 years old, I could still feel the general concern in England as to what could possibly happen next, despite the euphoria that so many troops were able to be brought back from the beaches. I was not to be called up into the Forces until October 1942, some two years later. I still consider the fact that in 1940 "we" in England were allowed to survive and fight another day was truly one of the miracles of those amazing times. Ron
It's a good question and not easy to answer without using counterfactuals! I'd like to nominate early December 1941 when the German Army was at the very brink of entering Moscow. "The men of the Regiment were convinced they could count the number of days required to reach Moscow on the fingers of one hand. The spires of the city were visible to the naked eye in the cold, clear weather. A forward 100mm battery placed harassing fire on the city" Otto Weidinger, 2nd SS Division 'Das Reich'
I still think the " Battle Of Britain " period was the most dangerous, it was singularly responsible for the continuance of the war against Nazism. Should the defence of Britain have failed and Germany invaded, the conflict against Germany would have fizzled out, even with the invasion of the Soviet Union as Hitler would have had the resources to push harder, maybe even forcing an armistice ( obviously conjecture ) The USA would have focused on the Pacific, without a European ' base ', and left Hitler to his own devices. Absolutely. Had we lost air superiority in the summer of 1940, then an invasion would surely have been inevitable.
Absolutely. Had we lost air superiority in the summer of 1940, then an invasion would surely have been inevitable. That may be true but I still think that the invasion would not have been successful. Dave
Ron. In those after Dunkirk times, we were on the brink of disaster. Even our MPs were thinking of sueing for peace. Looking back who would have seen what was to happen, For the future then was BLEAK was it not?
'Battle of the Atlantic' , nearly everything that was needed to survive and fight was brought by ship , the tonnage sent to the bottom was unbelievable ,All oil was brought to the Country and was refined Aviation spirit petrol diesel ett. and as germany found out to its cost , a modern war grinds to a halt when supplies dry up .
one missing from the list IMHO- Stalingrad. If it had fallen then the world would have been a different place The Nazis would have turned right, got the oil fields and linked up with the Balkans, Adriatic, Greece et al