"One of the great arguments of World War II took place among Allied military leaders in 1942 over when and where to launch a second front against Germany in Europe. Stalin, holding on by his teeth in Russia, urged a major invasion from the west as soon as possible. The Americans, led by Marshall and Wedemeyer, argued likewise. It was Churchill who got his way, however, with his Mediterranean strategy, including a grueling campaign on the Italian peninsula, which he mistakenly called the 'soft underbelly of Europe.' This realistic, fact-based work posits what would have happened had Churchill been overruled, and that rather than invading North Africa in the fall of 1942, thence Sicily and Italy, the Allies had hit the coast of southern France instead...This alternate scenario - realistsic down to the weapons and unit capabilities - gives us a look at how the war might well have played out differently, as in fact was strenuously argued at the time. This fascinating alternative history comes close to informing us exactly what might have happened had D-Day in Europe come as early as some had wished." -- From the publisher.