COUNTERFACTUAL HISTORY I just learned the term today = where you ponder how history MIGHT have turned out, 'if only'...?
So, my question is, how many times did just one or a few people BY THEMSELVES alter the course of WWII? In other words, did we come REALLY close to losing WWII, and more than once?
Since learning of Alan Turing, I seem to come upon such places...not in isolation, of course, Turing for example was part of a group who built upon the work of Polish cryptanalysis...along with dedicated women like Jean Valentine who daily operated the British bombes...
But consider also FDR; he had to decide whether a) to abandon Britain to Hitler; b) to give partial help to England, keeping back a little bit of protection for the USA; c) give all we had to England, leaving the USA exposed and vulnerable while we re-tooled factories for war production.
Well, FDR chose option c), and Britain stopped Nazism against all the odds. But even there, apparently FDR was not planning to help England until Churchill courageously ordered the British Navy to fire on a French battleship, ensuring the French ship could not fall into German hands...FDR then understood England would REALLY fight...
Also maybe the French Resistance, because apparently D-Day was not fully secured when Hitler sent a crack Panzer Division...but then 2 or 3 French blew up the tracks, delaying the Panzers.
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Then, maybe even Hitler himself; apparently Germany had some "miraculous" victories early on...I have wondered if Hitler felt he was divinely ordained, and then made some really bad egotistical decisions?