source material from "D-Day" and "Cross-Channel Attack"...
Churchill pushed for an invasion of Southern France as an alternative to striking the Atlantic Wall directly. The Americans agreed to this in order to secure the key ports of Toulon and Marsielle. Further operations into France and towards Germany would have run into the Volges Mountains (the region along the French-Swiss-German border). It was recognized early on that any major efforts into the Volges would have quickly bogged down, the ground was simply excellent for conduct of a defense (it litterly would have been up one ridge after another).
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The reason that the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos, and the American Army practices chaos on a daily basis.
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