It would be exceedingly risky and a tremendously difficult task to land let alone march through the Balkans into Germany proper.
For starters pull up a topographical map of the Adriatic coast and you will find that with a few notable exceptions further up the Adriatic it’s mostly made up of rocky borderline mountainous coastline with few natural harbors large enough or developed enough to support any sort of invasion force after a landing could occur. Then look further inland and you will see even more mountainous terrain poorly suited for large scale offensive operations but perfect for stubborn defensive stands.
Then assuming you can overcome the Balkans coastal issues and manage an advance through the dense mountains and forests of then Yugoslavia you run into either the Austrian Alps, the Danube & Sara Rivers and eventually the the Carpathian Mountains beyond the Danube. Basically the Balkans are a defender’s paradise and would have posed immense likely even insurmountable challenges for the Allied armies and would have nullified most of their major advantages like Air power and large mechanized formations as the terrain would hinder their ability to operate effectively.
It would be exceedingly risky and a tremendously difficult task to land let alone march through the Balkans into Germany proper.
For starters pull up a topographical map of the Adriatic coast and you will find that with a few notable exceptions further up the Adriatic it’s mostly made up of rocky borderline mountainous coastline with few natural harbors large enough or developed enough to support any sort of invasion force after a landing could occur. Then look further inland and you will see even more mountainous terrain poorly suited for large scale offensive operations but perfect for stubborn defensive stands.
Then assuming you can overcome the Balkans coastal issues and manage an advance through the dense mountains and forests of then Yugoslavia you run into either the Austrian Alps, the Danube & Sara Rivers and eventually the the Carpathian Mountains beyond the Danube. Basically the Balkans are a defender’s paradise and would have posed immense likely even insurmountable challenges for the Allied armies and would have nullified most of their major advantages like Air power and large mechanized formations as the terrain would hinder their ability to operate effectively.
balkans need more love and less world war