Скачать или смотреть The Allied and German Armies in Normandy - rating their effectiveness.

In 1944, the Battle of Normandy which began on 6th June lasted well into August. It took the Allied armies a very long time to gain ground inland. The city of Caen, an objective - if an ambitious one - on D-Day itself, did not fall for over a month. At the time - and even more since 1945 - there has been a lot of contraversay over the effectiveness of the Allied plans. More recently, there has been a devate over the relative military effectiveness of the rival armies, with for instance Max Hastings in his book Overlord arguing that the Germans were superior tactically and in equipment to the Americans, British and Canadians. Obviously, the Allies won and the Germans lost, but the implication of this reasoning is that the Allies ought to have won faster.
How far is any of this justified? Today we think about this question, and look at the nature of the rival armies and their experience since 1945, rate the weapons, tanks and guns they used, and the doctrine and motivation.