On The Defensive
In the east, the Germans had been steadily withdrawing in the face of increasingly capable Red Army offensives. After the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, the Reich arsenal was deprived of many important armored vehicles and Germany was unable to launch another serious offensive in the east. At the time of the D-Day invasion on 6 June 1944, German forces were thinly stretched across three fronts. By August 1944, Soviet forces had crossed into parts of eastern Germany and in December, the last-ditch Ardennes Offensive ground to a halt in the west due to a lack of supplies and bitter allied opposition.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Germany During World War II
Famous quotes containing the word defensive:
“Compared to football, baseball is almost an Oriental game, minimizing individual stardom, requiring a wide range of aggressive and defensive skills, and filled with long periods of inaction and irresolution. It has no time limitations. Football, on the other hand, has immediate goals, resolution on every single play, and a lot of violence—itself a highlight. It has clearly distinguishable hierarchies: heroes and drones.”
—Jerry Mander, U.S. advertising executive, author. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, ch. 15, Morrow (1978)