WWII: What if D-Day didnt succeed?

[Fox5]

Actually, the US might have taken a severe turn to the right. The right would have used any ceasefire as propaganda against liberals in the US, and the higher body count caused by a Soviet exit could have made Americans more receptive to this talk.

I do not think that the war would have lasted much longer than it did. Germany would have been nuked, and the German could have retaliated by using nerve gas. Then the Allied would have hit German with everything, and the German economy would have collapsed.

Weren't the American conservatives more so against war (non-interventionist) at the time?

The war would have gone on longer.
The soviets may have taken more territory (perhaps even leading to an American versus USSR war).
Germany may have secured peace with the Soviets, but still lost to the allies. Japan would have been stronger due to distracted resources and may not have stopped the US before it reached the mainland. (jets may have stopped Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
Germany may have secured peace with both the Soviets and the rest of the allies. The Cold War would have been a 3 way against the axis powers and the Soviets. Likely two sides would have sided against the other.

Anyhow, we could just have easily asked what if Operation Market Garden had succeeded? Perhaps the Cold War would have been hot, or perhaps it would have barely mattered at all.

 

[techs]

There was no way the Russians were going to make any kind of peace with Germany. The Russians had been pushing back the Germans for quite some time by D-Day. They were also massively out producing the Germans.

Even if the Allies were repulsed on D-Day the Germans didn't have enough resources to transfer to the east to do anything but hold the line or make modest gains. And if the Germans had committed their armor in time during D-Day they would have had to expose them to overwhelming air attack. Even if the Germans did succed in foiling the D-Day landings they would have lost a massive amount of their armor. Leaving less to fight Russia.

The Allies still had a front in Italy to which massive amounts of troops who were scheduled to land in France would have been immediately shipped to.

Plus there was the invasion of southern France still about to happen.
And Churchills plan to invade Europe thru the "soft underbelly" would have still been possible.

 

[grrl]

There was no way the Russians were going to make any kind of peace with Germany. The Russians had been pushing back the Germans for quite some time by D-Day. They were also massively out producing the Germans.

Exactly, all this talk about a ceasefire is utter nonsense. There is no way Stalin would have allowed German to remain unoccupied, much less remain under Nazi rule. There was also no way the Germans could defeat Russia, much less blunt their relentless advance along a nearly 2000-mile long front.

Even if the Allies were repulsed on D-Day the Germans didn't have enough resources to transfer to the east to do anything but hold the line or make modest gains. And if the Germans had committed their armor in time during D-Day they would have had to expose them to overwhelming air attack.

And don't forget naval gunfire. Rommel was in an impossible position, if he held the panzers back the landings would more likely succeed, but if he sent them forward to fight on the beaches they would have faced certain annihilation.

 

[Fritzo]

Germany gets nuked

This may have actually happened if the war dragged out longer. We may have ended up nuking Berlin.

 

[AdamK47]

What if the Germans stopped us?
ie: Rommel's Panzer division didnt turn back, but reached Normandy in time to help defend vs our beachhead

I have no doubt that we would still have won since we had the Atomic bomb. But we would have dropped a couple in Germany first. Japan seeing that, would have surrendered. Thus no A-bombs dropped into Japan.

Your thoughts?

I doubt the Japanese would have surrendered if they knew of atomic bombs falling on Germany. They were stubborn up to the very end even with atomic bombs destroying two cities. They refused unconditional surrender many many times.

 

[sourceninja]

"If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!" - Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming "Jack" Churchill.

 

[rudder]

The German war machine was in bad shape. Their factories were still getting bombed, they were running out of fuel, etc. Same result... it would have taken a little longer.

 

[Mide]

We'd be speaking a lot more Russian and German rather than Spanish.

 

[ProfJohn]

There is really no way that the landings could have failed.

We put 175,000 troops into France that day. There was no way for the Germans to stop a force that large. Even on the beach with the worst casualty rate we only lost 5,000 out of 50,000.

And as others have said, the only way to really stop us would have been to bring their tanks right to the front, but that would have brought them within range of our naval assets which would have destroyed them.

 

[F1N3ST]

then we'd probably call it f(ail)-day

D: lol

 

[NesuD]

the russians would have reached the rhine

I don't think so. If The D-Day invasion had failed and the allies were forced back into the sea Russia likely would have stayed in a defensive posture. The primary reason that Russia and the Allies were able to essentially overrun Germany was that the invasion forced Germany to fight a 2 front war against 2 very large and well supplied armies. Germany did not have the manpower or the resources to do that. Without the second front Germany would have had far more men and resources to throw into the fray against Russia. More than likely the eastern front would have stagnated into a stalemate until such time as the a western front could be successfully opened.

 

[coloumb]

We'd be speaking a lot more Russian and German rather than Spanish.

Naw - the "illegals from the south" would still be screwing their way to overpopulating and destroying the economy - they'd just be taking more and more of the America away from the Russians...

Amazing how nobody recognizes that Canada was a major reason for the win that day...

http://www.members.shaw.ca/junobeach/juno-1.htm

 

[techs]

I don't think so. If The D-Day invasion had failed and the allies were forced back into the sea Russia likely would have stayed in a defensive posture. The primary reason that Russia and the Allies were able to essentially overrun Germany was that the invasion forced Germany to fight a 2 front war against 2 very large and well supplied armies. Germany did not have the manpower or the resources to do that. Without the second front Germany would have had far more men and resources to throw into the fray against Russia. More than likely the eastern front would have stagnated into a stalemate until such time as the a western front could be successfully opened.

Much of the German forces in France were grade C. They were essentially not mobile due to lack of transport and were composed of old men and young kids. They would have been of little help in an offensive against Russia, though they could have manned fixed positions. The question is whether the capable German forces that could have been transferred could have made any difference against Russia.

I'd say, at best they could have held the line and perhaps allow some modest German gains. However, the Russians were so outproducing the Germans in quantity and of sufficient quality, I don't think the Germans stood a chance.
Remember the Russians turned the tide before the US entered the war.

While the Russians were actually starting to run out of manpower, that's only because they didn't want to take conscripts from the "liberated" countries they later wanted to dominate. Though, if they needed to, the could.

 

[0roo0roo]

Weren't the American conservatives more so against war (non-interventionist) at the time?

The war would have gone on longer.
The soviets may have taken more territory (perhaps even leading to an American versus USSR war).
Germany may have secured peace with the Soviets, but still lost to the allies. Japan would have been stronger due to distracted resources and may not have stopped the US before it reached the mainland. (jets may have stopped Hiroshima and Nagasaki)
Germany may have secured peace with both the Soviets and the rest of the allies. The Cold War would have been a 3 way against the axis powers and the Soviets. Likely two sides would have sided against the other.

Anyhow, we could just have easily asked what if Operation Market Garden had succeeded? Perhaps the Cold War would have been hot, or perhaps it would have barely mattered at all.

actually the left was vehemently against the war, in fact if you look at many of the early slogans/writings of the isolationists they sometimes read as word for word match of todays anti war stuff. from unwinnable war, to its not our fight, to its just a war for imperialism, enriching arms manufacturers..

 

[Colt45]

I don't think so. If The D-Day invasion had failed and the allies were forced back into the sea Russia likely would have stayed in a defensive posture.

They were already on the offensive for a year before D-day. The writing was on the wall for the krauts after the soviet victory at kursk.