LEST WE FORGET

[Frank]

Different interpretations in just about every book or article you read, which is why I said "I understand..."

It wasn't until the conferences in Tehran and Cairo in late 1943 that the allies finally agreed to make Overlord their prime objective for the following year.

The British had wanted to concentrate more on the Mediterranean (to protect their middle east oil supplies and to keep open the route to India). The Americans were less than enthusiastic about this strategy, and were keen to promote the invasion of France once the Germans were defeated at the Battle of Stalingrad, and it began to look as though the Russians might beat Hitler, and get to Berlin first. I think both Eisenhower and Churchill were alert to the possibility of Russia dominating eastern Europe after the war, but had different ideas about how to counter that possibility.

Stalin had been arguing for an invasion in the west since 1942, in order to take some of the pressure of Russia. I would imagine the western allies' delay in actually doing this contributes to the lack of any mention of the war in the west in the Ukrainian museum Phil mentioned earlier in the thread.
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A York City supporter for life -
whatever league we're playing in.

[gster]

The other way of looking at it (from first-year history lectures) is that the USSR wanted a buffer zone in Eastern Europe to protect it against a revived Germany, as they'd suffered invasion from Europe several times over the previous 150 years, but ultimately this became overtaken by the need for protection against the western Allies.

Having capitalist democracies in Central and Eastern Europe under Western influence and conceivably American military occupation was a big worry for the security of the Soviet regime - they feared it would lead to either invasion or revolution inside the USSR.

This argument also goes some way to explaining recent Russian hostility to the idea of the Central and Eastern Europeans joining NATO, the idea being that if they're not "with us", "they're against us", and NATO's prime purpose is still defence of Europe against a threat from Russia.

G
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Running the council, we're having a laugh

[UkrainianPhil]

My own particular favourite story which just about sums the Russians up, was the famous picture of the Russian soldiers on top of the captured Reichstag building in Berlin.

Russian officials looked with pride at the photos of their victorious troops until they realised that one of the soldiers was wearing two watches on his wrist - looted from the houses of German civilians. The picture was then restaged well after the event to save a few red faces!
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"Local reporter sees Ruslana 4 times in bad music taste scandal"

[El_pats]

[DMN]

There was a very moving little pic in the Sunday Mirror yesterday, a small french boy with a t-shirt that said on the back:

"A child born into freedom. Thankyou Mr. War veteran."


A simple message that speaks more than some will ever know.
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"When your doing things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all"

[gster]