Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Why didn't the U.S. Reach Berlin First in WWII? | Animated History" video.

  1. He was fibbing. He had explicit orders from Marshall to stop where he did. Yes, Ike was merely following orders from above. He didn't have ANY influence over his 'stop line.' The Big Decision was made in the Pentagon by Marshall, alone. At the time FDR was unable to fulfill his official duties. He was soon dead. FDR was in such a bad way that Truman should've been made president before FDR passed on. Due to war time censorship and secrecy, FDR's death came as a shock to the general public -- but not to Washington insiders. BTW, Truman was forced upon FDR by the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate. They knew that FDR was fading away -- and they trusted Truman -- a guy that they regularly played cards with. Truman didn't even lobby for the position.
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  2.  @landsea7332  Marshall didn't factor that in. All that he saw was that the deal was a done deal... that Stalin was to have eastern Germany in any event. So why spill ANY American blood to advance the territorial lust of Stalin? Orders were cut to stop any further US Army advances. Even so, some GIs decided to drive a Jeep all the way to the Elbe --- and shake hands. What most moderns don't know is that this became a PR stunt -- only. The US Army -- for real -- was not going to advance to the Elbe. In nothing flat, the paranoid Reds advanced to meet the Americans miles further west. When the American Press attached to the US Army ventured -- against instructions -- into Berlin -- the US Army was furious. All of their stories were locked down and the sinners were censured. They weren't free to roam and gather any more field reports. The LAST thing the US Army wanted were revelations about the conduct of the Red Army... known to be terrible by the Pentagon. The illusion of comity had to be maintained. In the immediate post-war daze, troops of the 82nd Airborne got into a bar fight with Reds -- and shots were fired. This tale was totally suppressed at the time. "It was the vodka talking." A drunk Russian started the frickas. The censor buried it.
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  3. It wasn't Ike's decision. Marshall, his boss, made the call from the Pentagon. This fact was kept hidden from everyone for decades afterwards. Japan loomed large in the calculation.
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  4. Read "Marching Orders." Marshall decided where the US Army was going to stop -- NOT Ike. Yalta had already decided that Berlin would be in the Soviet Zone.
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