Max,
>I'm out of my depth on this topic, but how could
>the Western Front be 'small'? I would say the
>Southern Front was secondary -- all those annoying
>mountains in there, but the west? That doesn't
>discount the extent of casualties in the East.
Looks like Charles beat me to this. Let's put it this way - the Nazi's were already beaten by the time of the Normandy invasion. The Nazi forces were solidly on the defensive in the East. Certainly the Western Front hastened the inevitable, but the Germans were defeated in Russia.
The western allies helped the Russians by sending them equipment and so on, but the lion's share of the credit goes to the Soviets, in my opinion.
Brett