A must read for all you history fans...

[Woof1701]

Originally Posted by Captain Nemo

Good read. I have always found it interesting that some parts of Europe were left under German occupation right up until Germany's surrender in May 1945. Remarkably some French ports on the Atlantic coast that were home to u-boats were left in German hands right up until the end, these included St Nazaire and La Rochelle.

Nemo

It's only logical. The objective of the Allies was NOT to reconquer every little part of occupied land but to force Germany's surrender. As soon as Germany surrendered all occupied territories fell back to their rightful owners anyway (or were under dispute and later "assigned" to one of the victors). The uboats weren't a real danger anymore anyway, so deviating from Normandy to the Atlantic Coast would only have slowed down the progress, cost many more lives and prolonged the war.

At the time of Germany's surrender, many parts of France were still under German occupation. As was Denmark and IIRC parts of Norway. Germany hadn't been fully occupied by the Allies either. The idea was: if Berlin fell, Germany would fall. And that's exactly what happended.