Was there a consensus among the United States, Britain, and France on when to attack Germany?
In the early years of the war, Britain, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, was primarily focused on defending the British Isles and its global empire while carrying out limited offensives in North Africa and the Mediterranean. Churchill was wary of a direct invasion of continental Europe due to the potential for heavy casualties and the need to build up sufficient military strength. He favored a strategy of peripheral attacks to weaken Germany's hold on its occupied territories and to engage the Axis powers in a series of less risky campaigns. The United States, after entering the war in December 1941, initially supported a more direct approach. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. military leadership, particularly General George Marshall, advocated for a cross-Channel invasion of France as soon as possible to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union, which was bearing the brunt of the fighting against Germany on the Eastern Front. This difference in strategic priorities ...