Permanent Exhibition of European Theater at National WWII Museum

choi

Mark Yost, The Hard-Won Path to Victory; An exhibition looks at how the Allies captured Berlin ad won the war. Wall Street Journal, Jan 20, 2014
www.wsj.com/articles/SB21494047553488434070004580399480167979478
(exhibition review on “Road to Berlin: European Theater Galleries” at National World War II Museum at New Orleans)

Note:
(a) "The Allies had liberated Paris [Aug 25, 1944] and pushed back the Nazis’ last-gasp effort at the Battle of the Bulge."

Battle of the Bulge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge
(Hitler planned the offensive with the primary goal to recapture the important harbor of Antwerp; was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II)

(b) "There is archival footage of Hitler’s rise to power and a summation of his territorial conquests up to 1942, when the Americans made their first foray into Nazi territory—not into heavily fortified Europe, but North Africa. One factoid that sticks out: The German military machine was at its apex in 1942, with some nine million men in uniform. Setting the tone for the entire exhibit, the North Africa section, titled 'Desert War,' doesn’t shirk from telling visitors just how unprepared America was for war against the battle-hardened Germans. Maps, dioramas, diary entries and informative plaques explain that the North African landings were pretty much a disaster in terms of coordinating ships, men and machinery and landing them effectively on the beaches. But they also illustrate how smart Gen Dwight Eisenhower was in resisting political and alliance pressure to assault on Fortress Europe in the early stages of the war."
(i) Nazi Germany
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany
(1933-1945; Population: 1939 est. 69,314,000 [likely including those of occupied areas])

Compare:
(A) US census in 1940 had 132 million people.
(B) By the Numbers: The US Military. The National WWII Museum, undated
www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/ ... rs/us-military.html
(ii)
(A) Operation Torch
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Torch(Nov 8-16, 1942)
(B) Dwight D Eisenhower
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower
(Operation Torch also served as a valuable training ground for Eisenhower's combat command skills)

(c) "The museum also does much to explain that it was really America’s industrial might—its ability to mass produce tanks, planes and other armaments—as much as its eventual military prowess that defeated the Nazis. And the weapons on display are placed in their historical and tactical context. For instance, we learn from the text accompanying a desert diorama that it was the longer range of the M2A1 105 mm howitzer compared with the German 88 mm guns that made it so effective—able to inflict damage on the seasoned Germans before they got to our inexperienced troops."
(i) M2A1 howitzer
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M101_howitzer
(Produced 1941-1953; Maximum firing range 11,270 m (7.00 mi); section 2 Operators: included Republic of China)
(ii) "German 88 mm guns"
(A) 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41#Support_of_ground_troops
(The 88 mm gun (commonly called the eighty-eight) was a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun; section 3.1.2 Support of ground troops; In service 1936–1945; Maximum firing range 11,900 m (39,000 ft)))
(B) In His Own Words; Primary documents: analyzing a D-Day diary. The National WWII Museum, undated, at page 8
www.nationalww2museum.org/assets/pdfs/lesson-plan14.pdf
(Sidney J Montz; "Diary Vocabulary: * * * 88—the German 88mm gun, a long-range anti-air craft, anti-tank, anti-personnel gun most fearedby the Allies")

(d) “the costly August 1943 Allied raid on the German ball-bearing plant at Schweinfurt”
(i) Schweinfurt
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweinfurt
(in German literally 'swine ford'/ Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission [Aug 17, 1943])
(ii) Regensburg
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regensburg
(at the confluence of the Danube and Regen River; "Regensburg was home to both a Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft factory and an oil refinery, which were bombed by the Allies on Aug 17, 1943, by the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, and on Feb 5, 1945, during the Oil Campaign of World War II. Although both [military] targets were badly damaged, Regensburg itself suffered little damage from the Allied strategic bombing campaign")

is not next to Schweinfurt--but quite far away, which was nothing for airplanes.