2014: 70th Anniversary of Important World War II Battles
The year 2014 heralds 70 years since some of the most notable
battles in history. In Italy, the decisive battles of Anzio and Monte Cassino
sealed the fate of the Axis in Southern Europe, and D-Day, Operation Market
Garden and the Battle of the Bulge led to the undoing of the Axis in Western
Europe. By the time the Bulge failed, Germany was in full retreat on both
fronts; its unequaled military had been undone not only by pressure from all
the Allied nations but also by a series of bungles by incompetent military leaders
like Hitler. In a way, it is arguable that it was lucky the "man at the
top" in Germany was crazy. The combination of an incomplete grasp of
military strategy and tactics and a belief in his own infallibility doomed
Germany.
Luckily, the saner heads of the Allied commanders prevailed,
and 1944 was a year full of keystone victories over the evils of the Axis
powers not only in Europe but in the South Pacific too. Guam and Saipan fell in
1944, and the war’s end was now just a matter of time in both theaters as the
full air power of the Allies could be brought to bear. Recently, modern governments of countries involved in World War II have planned many
commemorative events honoring these battles and the soldiers that fought in
them.
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