Word: festung
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...months before Allied soldiers breached Festung Europa at Normandy, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt stubbornly argued over who would occupy the industry-rich Ruhr. After the invasion, Churchill's claim was reinforced by the top-level political and military decision to give Field Marshal Montgomery command of the sweep along the lowlands toward northeast Germany. Roosevelt finally yielded, let Churchill have the Ruhr...
There is every likelihood that in such a case, Churchill was prepared to retire to other parts of the Empire to carry on the war. But if Britain had been lost, there would have been small chance that the U.S. could ever have launched a successful invasion of Festung Europa. For that enterprise, a huge unsinkable aircraft carrier-was almost essential. The none too practical route through Africa would have been far less practical had the Germans not had to divide their defense between the English Channel and Mediterranean...
There were few air enthusiasts in the Allied camp who still believed that the air campaign would win the war. Yet even the non-enthusiasts could see that it was an indispensable part of the overall pressure on Festung Deutschland...
...England last Sunday, lean young men from the U.S. took English girls punting on the placid reaches of the upper Thames. English children played at storming the walls of Festung Europa. Maimed men, for whom the war is already over, sunned themselves by convalescent homes. The drone of motors grew steadily stronger...
...demands: the time had come to "coordinate" Germany's eager little ally. Full military occupation would be necessary, and a more tractable government; henceforth, too, more Hungarian workers for German industry, more Hungarian food for German mouths, would be required. Hungary, in short, was within the inner fortress (Festung Deutschland now, not Festung Europa); the time to play at being a sovereign ally had gone...