teribus - Those other empires you listed...absolutely. I agree with you entirely. I was not being "selective" in my listing of empires so much as I was just trying to avoid typing the longest run-on sentence in history by listing them all. Here's are some more: the Iroquois Six Nations, the Mongols, the Moghuls, the Khymers, the Japanese, the Italians, the Portuguese, the Comanches, the Scythians, the Parthians, Sparta, the Poles, the Turks, and so on, and so on, ad infinitum. To be under the heel of any of them was not necessarily a very pleasant experience, if you lived to enjoy it very long.

That there is an American empire, and has been for some time, is something I frequently draw attention to. In fact, it is THE Empire nowadays, complete with stealth fighters and bombers that look just like something Darth Vader would have dreamed up.

I'm intrigued that you think Patton was an idiot. I agree that he was a difficult personality, but I think his military instincts were superb. He always saw where a breakthrough could be made, and how to do it, and he didn't hesitate for an instant. The Germans regarded him as by far the best general on the Allied side. He was also irascible, egotistical, undiplomatic in the extreme, and guaranteed to make enemies in high places by shooting his mouth off.

Now, in the case of the Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes offensive) Patton wanted to go in behind the German bulge, after it had been contained, and bag the whole lot. He could have done it too. But Eisenhower would not go along with that. No sir, Eisenhower fought them slowly back, yard by yard, on a wide front, fighting a battle of attrition against German troops who were probably the best in the world at fighting a dogged retreating defence.

I think Eisenhower was the idiot. I think his plodding and unimaginative strategy cost the Allies months of time, many lives, and the loss of most of Eastern Europe to the Soviets.

But hey, maybe I'm wrong. I do know this: the Germans were truly scared of Patton. They were not scared of Eisenhower, Bradley or Montgomery. Patton was the Guderian of the Allied forces, crazy or not, he knew how to get the job done, and done fast.

As for O'Connor, I agree with your assessment of him. He was very good.

The Italians sometimes fought very well too, BTW, which is remembered by almost no one, but they generally lacked the specific modern equipment needed to win on the battlefield, not to mention the industrial strength to put it out in sufficient quantity.

Their tanks were very inadequate, many of their aircraft were quite obsolete or undergunned, and their Navy utterly lacked 3 crucial items...aircraft carriers, radar, and flashless powder (for night fighting). This led very rapidly to complete impotence and frustration for the Italian fleet, and resulted in it spending most of its time in harbour and getting torpedoed by British carrier aircraft...whether in harbour or at sea. They were in no way prepared to fight that war. This was usually pretty plain to their soldiers in the field, and that doesn't help in maintaining morale.

Now Germany...they could have won the war. But I think the odds were fairly long against them, and Hitler's insane political and social policies led them further and further away from reality. As to whether they were stronger than Britain...I would say they were considerably stronger in 1940, except for one thing: the Royal Navy. Britain was damn lucky that the channel was there, that Germany had a very small fleet of surface warships, and was also lucky that Goering insisted on tieing his fighter planes in close escort to the bombers over Britain instead of letting them roam free and do what they did best...shoot down fighter planes and strafe them on the ground. The Germans could have won the Battle of Britain, given just a couple of better decisions by Goering. If they had, I believe Britain would have fallen in the fall of 1940, and the government would have no doubt fled to Canada, and directed the British Empire from there. After that, God knows what would have happened, but it would not have been good. Not good at all.

If I may paraphrase Otto in "A Fish Called Wanda"..."If it wasn't for Goering, you'd all be speaking German!!!" (He said "if it wasn't for the USA" or words to that effect)

- LH