Captain Ed - Gets WW II wrong - Again

Captain Ed tries to play History professor & celebrate D-Day. He writes this:

"Sixty-five years ago today, the US, Britain, Canada, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and others, sent their best young men to storm the beaches of Normandy and liberate an entire continent from the iron grip of a madman and a cult of death that surrounded him. Over 150,000 of them charged off of the troop carriers; at least 2500 never made it off the beaches, or in some cases, not even onto the beaches. No one actually knows the exact number lost on D-Day, and many of the dead were never found. The official casualty figure, including wounded and missing, exceeds 10,000."

First of all "New Zealand"? Of course, there were New Zealanders fighting Hitler but most of them were in Italy or the RAF. And if you're going to mention Norway, what not the Dutch and or the French - didn't they help out a little bit?

Secondly, we weren't fighting to liberate an "entire continent" from the grip of madman, because we'd already promised that other "Madman" (Stalin) Poland, Hungary, Romania, 1/2 of Germany, the Baltic Countries, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.

Thirdly, the "best young men" had been fighting in Italy since August 1943, and the Soviets been fighting Hitler since June 1941. And to put D-Day losses in perspective - the Soviets lost 700,000 men Killed and missing from January to June 1944. By the time we landed at Normandy, the Germans had lost on the Eastern Front, 2,000,000 men Killed, disabled, missing.

Captain Ed and D-Day

Captain Ed talks about D-Day and indulges in some American Uber Alles chest thumping.

Sixty-four years ago today, Allied forces swept onto the beaches of Normandy to liberate France and put an end to Nazi domination of Europe. The D-Day assault comprised American, Canadian, and British forces, but the Americans led, and for the most part the Americans bled, especially on Omaha. This position of leadership and sacrifice heralded the emergence of America as the primary Western power, but on that day, no one could say for sure that we would succeed.

Just to clear up the historical record. 4 of the 8 divisions landing on D-day were British and Canadian. Except for Eisenhower, the entire Allied Top Command was British. Montgomery Land C-in-C, Leigh Mallory Air C-in-C, and Ramsey Naval C-in-C. And Eisenhower's SHAEF deputy was Tedder. The man in charge of the original D-day plan was Morgan, another English General. And at least half the planes and most of Naval ships were English - not American.

American lead? Hardly. Also, we ahouldn't forget that while 60 German Divisions faced us in France 160 German Divisions were fighting the Russians. Or that while we lost 7,500 men on D-Day, the Germans had been losing 50,000 KIA a month for the last two years before D-Day.

When we finally landed in France in June 1944, the Germans had lost almost 2 Million men KIA, POW, and crippled on the Eastern front. By comparison the US Army and Air Corps (Force) had lost about 35,000 KIA from Dec 1941 to June 1944. IOW, up to D-day we had lost as many men fighting the Germans as the Germans had lost in one month on the Eastern Front.

In the next six months, while we pushed Germans out of France and fought the Battle of the Bulge, the Soviets ran the Germans out of the USSR, Finland, the Baltic countries, Rumania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, and most of Yugoslavia. They killed and captured twice as many Germans and were always fighting the bulk of the German army.

Captain Ed Plays History professor - gets it wrong

http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/WW2Pics6/CAN11838a.jpg

In a post entitled It was never OK to Carve up Czechoslovakia "Captain Ed" attacks Bruce Ramsey for his "defense" of Chamberlain and the Munich Agreement. Of course, Ramsey in his blog ed cetera doesn't really defend Chamberlain, he simply states we have judged Britain and France too harshly for its actions at Munich and that our criticism based entirely on 20/20 hindsight.

Per "Captain Ed" this is "Hogwash" and further:

"it attempts to rescue Neville Chamberlain by ignoring his greatest crime. No nation has the right to dismember an allied nation without its approval, or even its participation. The ministers of Czechoslovakia were barred from the Munich negotiations by Hitler, and Chamberlain presented them with the loss of the Sudetenland as a fait accompli, warning the Czechoslovakian ministers that Britain and France would break the mutual defense treaty if they refused to sign away their territory."

As Captain Ed would say "Hogwash". The Czech Republic was cobbled together in 1919 by the Allies at Versailles. Neither the German-speakers nor the Slovaks were consulted, simply forced into the new country. And Chamberlain did not "dismember" Czechoslovakia anymore than the Allies "dismembered" Austria in 1919 by giving the Czechs their independence. Further, England had no moral obligation to go to war to prevent 3 million Germans from leaving Czechoslovakia and exercising the right of self-determination.

The Wehrmacht high command was stunned at this turn of events. They knew, as did the British and the French, that they had forcibly removed the one great impediment to German ambitions in the East.

False. Czechoslovakia was NOT a "Great impediment". It was a small country of 15 million people made up of 7.5 Czechs, 3 million Germans who wanted to join Germany, 3 million Slovaks who wanted their own country & a couple million Poles, Hungarians, etc . The country had no modern air force. By comparison Germany had 70 million people and the largest, most modern air force in the world.

The mountains of Moravia and Bohemia presented a formidable natural defense against German invasion, and the Czechoslovakians had added modern military fortifications that would have stopped even a blitzkrieg cold,

False. Look at a map of Czech in 1938. Prague is only 100 miles from the German/Austrian border in 3 directions, north, south, and west. There were little or no fortifications on the Austrian border, which was over 100 miles long. The Czechs had no air force and were cut off from outside aid. The Czechs would have been overrun in a month just like the Poland was in Sept 39.

leaving Germany’s western frontier open to assault from the much larger French Army.l

False. The French had no plans of launching an assault on Germany's western border in Sept 38. They had no plans to do so in Sept 39. Their war plan against Germany in 1938-1939 never changed. The war plan called for France to mobilize, then remain on the defense behind the Maginot line, while Britain built up an Army in France, and the blockade weakened Nazi Germany.

And the French had almost no modern Air Force in Sept 38, they had a few modern planes in Sept 39, and still didn't have a modern air force capable of taking on the Luftwaffe in June 1940. The French Army wasn't "much larger". In any case, it wasn't large enough to have punched through the Siegfried Line in the fact of constant air attacks from the Luftwaffe. Also, note that Germany in fact had twice the manpower of France. 12 million men of military age vs. France's 6 million. In June 1940 Germans had 200 Divisions to the French 100 Divisions.

Any thought of stopping Hitler from within ended at Munich and didn’t seriously reappear until the senior German officers realized the war was lost after Normandy in 1944.

German officers tried several times to kill Hitler prior to July '44, and/or mount coups against him. After the war, the German High Command had every incentive to overplay their willingness to overthrow Hitler and to blame the Allies for their failure to do so. Given their incompetence in the '44 coup attempt, there is no reason they could have overthrown Hitler in Sept 38, or even tried to do so.

They had given the natural defense of eastern Europe away for a promise, thanks to politicians who dreamed of peace at any cost, and who sold Czechoslovakia out to get it. Six months later, the same two nations wouldn’t even lift a finger to protect the rump Czech state as Hitler rolled across it, preparing for his assault on Poland and eastern Europe.

False. Chamberlain allowed the Sudetenland with 2.5 million Germans to leave Czechoslovakia and become part of Germany. Its called self-determination. It corrected the mistake of 1919.
Hitler by conquering the Czechs in March 1939 and breaking his agreement, showed Chamberlain - and everyone else - that he was just another Pan-German imperialist and couldn't be trusted. When UK and France went to war in Sept 1939 they had the moral high ground, since everyone knew -based on Hitlers actions- that he wasn't interested in Danzig but in conquest.

Captain Ed attacks Coulter

Yes, I know, what else is new? In addition to being verbose, pompous, and utterly humorless, "Captain Ed" is never happier than attacking a fellow conservative. He hates Buchanan, loathes Rush, and despises Coulter. So, Ed's the latest attack on her, for threatening to vote for Hillary was expected.

And as usual, Ed just doesn't get it. Coulter is a smart woman and she directs her humor toward smart people - who get the joke. Unfortunately, stupid people feel the need to comment on her. And so do not-so-stupid liberals and "reasonable" conservatives; who deliberately play dumb, and treat jokes and hyperbole as sober, serious policy statements.

But this is just S.O.P for Captain Ed. His constant attacks on Coulter use 2 basic tricks. Trick one, take a Coulter joke or sarcastic comment and treat it as a serious literal statement. Using this approach, you can attack anyone who makes any unserious comment. For example, isn't it shocking that Henry Youngman hated his wife and wanted someone to take her. And I'm glad someone stopped Reagan from bombing Russia in three minutes, like he threatened.

The 2nd approach, is simply to misquote her. He also tries that approach in his latest attack. You see, according to Ed: "she derided John Edwards as a "faggot" and then she refused to apologize. (!)

First, Coulter never apologizes to liberals since as shown in the case of Imus, Trent Lott, etc. an apology gets you nowhere. Conservatives are never forgiven. The whole point is to attack and destroy them, not reach some sort of understanding.

Secondly, in her JOKE she did not call or deride Edwards as a "faggot". She was making 2 points , one Edwards is a wuss, and secondly Hollywood and PC have gotten so out of hand that you need to go to rehab for using the word "faggot".