Lets Talk:
I find your posting to be highly rude and out of place. I and others here are attempting to engage a serious debate on this topic with you and others. What I've done here is to raise the facts that I've uncovered in my years of research that examines the entire spectrum of views.
Its apparent to me now that when confronted with information that does not conform to you viewpoint, you resort to making personal attacks and claims that we are fed by propaganda without providing any sort of contradictory evidence. In less than four posts you have made the following accusations:
#1 I'm a closet Nazi supporter
#2 Hurled insults at Chidoriashi and myself as being poorly educated
#3 Claim that we all deluded by propaganda.
None of that proves anything and just reflects badly on you. If you want to have an enlightened discussion on history, then stop insulting everybody who doesn't share your viewpoint. Its disgusting.
If thats the way you want to act, then maybe you should just consider why you are posting here in the first place.
Fact: the first US troops arrived in Britain in January 1942.
Fact: for nearly a year they were sitting on their a$$es and doing nothing before they went into action against Axis.
The problem here is the amount of landing capacity. The US military could not mount a large scale, successful naval landing until late 1943 at the earliest. As Operation Jubilee (the Dieppe Raid) showed, the allied militaries needed thousands of landing craft and a whole range of special capabilities to undertake successful seaborne invasions. A large portion of this would go to the pacific to assist in the island hopping campaign against the Japanese. The remaining capability they Allies did have was sufficient to undertake smaller operations in Morocco, Sicily and Italy in 1942~1943.
An Invasion of France was always going to be one of the most difficult operations to undertake. Unlike North Africa or Italy, France possessed a very good transportation network, which would allow the Wehrmacht to quickly move reinforcements from Germany to counterattack. This meant that the Western Allies needed to prepare a massive invasion force as well as ensure they would not be defeated. Had the Americans, British and Canadians attempted an invasion in 1943, it would likely end up in defeat.
When Operation Overlord did occur, the allies were able to have over 200,000 on the beachhead within a couple of days, and 1.2 million by August. Moreover any movement of reserves were severely delayed by the massive interdiction campaign waged by the Allied Tactical Air Forces which ensured that only a small trickle of forces would actually reach the beachheads in time.
Fact: in November 1942 they finally started some pathetic and unprofessionally done actions in Africa and blew them off completely.
So if you are calling the Torch landings "pathetic and unprofessionally done," how do you expect them to carry out a massive invasion against the Germans in Europe?
As the result the Vichy France was occupied, the Axis forces in Africa were reinforced.
The reinforcement of Axis Forces in Africa led to one of the greatest victories by the allies. Hitler decision to reinforce those troops turned out to be a massive disaster... over 330,000 German and Italian troops (including the entire Deutch Africa Corps.) How bad was the Tunisian losses? Stalingrad cost the Germans 700,000 soldiers (German+Italian+Romanian+Bulgarian troops), but most of those troops were a mix of Category A,B and C units.The losses of the Tunisan campaign were of Category A troops that were extremely battle hardened, and equipped with some of the best weapons in German arsenal including the new Tiger Tank, BF-109Gs and JU-188 bombers. The losses were staggering and drew forces away from Operation Zitadell (Kursk).
Fact: after the failed operation in Northen Africa, Americans were keeping sitting on their a$$es for 18 months and doing nothing.
Not true, after the Tunisian Campaign ended in May 1943, they landed on Sicily a month later. After mopping up Sicily by Mid August, they then carried out landings on Italy proper in September, forcing its capitulation. The capitulation of Italy due to the Western Allies campaigns in 1942~1943 removed 1.6 million Italian soldiers and the country's industrial capabilities from the Axis side. It also forced the Germans to send forces to italy to hold off any future advances. This was a major strategic victory.
Fact: only in June 1944, after all hard bloody work was done by Russians, French, Polish and others, the USA finally entered Normandy with serious forces and got the western world to ransom.
This timeline does not reflect reality. Roosevelt wanted to invade Europe (Operation Sledgehammer in 1942), but was councilled against it by his generals and Churchill. They instead suggested earlier landings in the "soft underbelly" of Europe; Italy.
The US was also single handedly fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, participating in the North Africa/Italy campaigns, all the while providing vital war material for the Soviets and the British. The latter required a massive naval effort that is known as the "Battle for the Atlantic" Finally there was also the Strategic Bombing Campaign, which was vital for hindering the overall war effort. This cost 160,000 Western lives and billions of dollars in lost equipment.
None of this ignores the massive sacrifice of Soviet lives in the Great Patriotic war, which the West owes a great debt of gratitude. Certainly they undertook the brunt of the casualties and the fighting in the war. Without them the outcome of the war would have been in doubt. However you can't diminished that the Americans did play a critical part in securing victory in WWII.