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Originally Posted by olife
happy birthday bud!!!!!!!!!!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilly
Happy Birthday Fella. Is California one of these obscure places in the Ukraine???!!!!
And most of us Brits would contend you're Stalingrad point as 'the turning point' of the war in Europe!!!
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Thanks guys. Wish you were all here in LA, it's pretty crazy right now at my place. I had to slink my drunk ass out of my living room just to get some non-stuffy air! But it's pretty fun. Somehow BoP got put on my TV and now my friends are having a field day trying to fly because it's the only game in my house right now that nobody's decided to borrow.
Lilya's showing them up though in the Yak-1B of course.
As for the turning point. The BoB just halted Hitler's advance, but I'm not sure could be considered the turning point of the war. Mainly because since '41 the Russians had been fighting Hitler in Europe on the ground (not in North Africa where the British, Free French, and Americans were fighting him.) And then when Stalingrad happened, it was kinda like BoB for the ground war in Europe. But it was really the turning point in Europe because from late '42-early '43 onwards, The USSR had been pushing Hitler slowly but surely back to Germany. While the Western Allies were still poking around in Italy and just bombing Germany, rather than actually invading... which obviously D-Day was in '44. But by June '44 on the Eastern Front, the USSR had already taken all of Russia back, part of Belorussia and had successfully taken Romania, Hungary, and half of Poland.
Plus, Stalingrad showed that the German Army could be knocked down from their high Blitzkrieg Pedestal, and turned back to where they came from. BoB was just a stalling action sorry to say, because there is no doubt in my mind that if Hitler had successfully knocked out the RAF, and tried for an invasion, the Channel at the time and you Navy would have knocked him out, and he never would have succeeded in '40 of taking Britain. And if he'd been so daring as to invade via paratroopers in Ju-52s, I'm sure AA would have gotten them, or just the Army standing there taking pot shots like the Germans were during Operation Market Garden.