"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
What then? The war in central Europe (ETO) could have gotten our full
resouces, D Day would have been a year earlier and the war would have
been
over a lot sooner, German troops in No. Africa and the MTO would have
simply
been isolated and would died on the vine. Why not?

Regards,


Because there is no way the invasion could have been successfully launched
in 1943.

The troops, landing craft and aircraft were simply not available and could
not be
mde available until the Battle of the Atlantic was won. Some 5000 ships and
landing craft,
600,000 tons of supplies and 200,000 vehicles had to be assembled in
addition
to the armies and then there's the little matter of winning air superiority
over the
landing beaches. Without the decimation of the Luftwaffe in late 1943 and
early 1944 and lacking long range escort fighters any attempted invasion
would
have been exceptionally risky.

As for the MTO it was simply not possible to isolate the German and
Italian armies and ignore them. Had they been able to seize the Suez
canal and middle east they would have had access to virtually unlimited
oil supplies from Iraq and Iran while at the same time cutting the
supply of those products to allied forces. Not good at all.
At the very least strong garrisons would have to be left along the
Egyptian Libyan frontier and the Germans would be left with
bases in North Africa with which to harrass and attack shipping from
Australasia and South Africa heading for NW Europe.

As it was the forces captured when Tunisia fell were greater than
those captured at Stalingrad and not only was Italy knocked out of
the war but the Germans had to garrison that country as well
thus diverting troops who could have been used to defend
Northern France.

Keith