That's news to me -- #2 and #3, that is. You learn something new every day. If only it was always true.
The notion of a campaign that began with the amphibious assault at Normandy as a 'mopping up' operation is creative. Pity no left historians have caught on to this. Only Jones. I wonder what Herbert Aptheker would say.
max
***** ...There were three major strategic forces in the European theatre of world war 2, in this order of importance: (1) the Red Army; (2) British cryptography and cryptonalysis, including the creation of Colossus, the first truly programmable computer, largely designed by Alan Turing, which enabled the reading of Ultra messages in practically real time; and (3) RAF Bomber Command, a decisive instrument of Total War.
The Allied forces which invaded Normandy and earlier Italy were a distant 4th. The role of the Americans in Europe was largely (a) mopping-up the very-young and very-old last levees of the Wehrmacht and (b) chocolate and cigarette distributing PR....