The simple truth about WW2 is:
1) The Red Army killed about 3/4 of all German troops during the war, and the ratio for equipment loss is about the same. It is true that the West has, generally speaking (because there are exceptions) reduced the Soviet role in the war.
2) OTOH, the Soviets have made it seems as if they did everything, whereas the following factors definitely had a significant impact on the entire German war machine - including making things easier for the Soviets:
- Massive bombing of German factories, starting in 1942, and accelerating for the rest of the war.
- Forcing the Germans to defend their airspace. This involved massive aircraft and AA gun resources that couldn’t be utilized against the Soviets.
- The Battle of the Atlantic took away enormous naval resources from the Germans which couldn’t be used against the Soviets in the Baltic Sea and in the area around Murmansk.
- The invasions of North Africa and Sicily/Italy. These pulled significant German resources away from the Eastern Front.
- Even before the D-Day invasion, enormous German manpower, equipment and material resources were devoted to constructing and manning the Western Wall and developing mobile reserve forces.
- Significant equipment and fuel were sent by the US and (primarily) and the UK to the Soviets via Murmansk, the Middle East and Siberia. These resources arguably allowed the Soviets to have sufficient reserves to survive the German offensives of 1941 and 1942, and ultimately giving them must greater logistical resources for the Soviet offensives of 1943-1945.
The bottom line is that both the West and the Soviets contributed mightily to the effort to defeat Germany. By the nature of the war, the Soviets did more on the ground, whereas the Western powers did more in the air and on the seas. That is the objective reality, without giving any weight to who has more effective propaganda or who is more butthurt about what the other side says.
Everybody had their role.
The British stood tall when they were “alone”.
The US was able to be the “Arsenal of Democracy”, and ultimately did the majority of the fighting to defeat Imperial Japan, in addition to their role in Europe, including supplying the Allies with their Supreme Commander, a task brilliantly handled by Ike.
And the Russians who defended their Motherland and made the Nazis pay dearly for their mistake.
All true. Yet it cannot be ignored that the Russians ground down and destroyed the best units of the German army. If it had not been for their stout resistance and the willingness to absorb huge casualties, the American land campaign to retake Western Europe would have been much more difficult and American casualties would have been enormous. Many Americans simply would not exist today if the Russians had not killed so many Germans. Their fathers and grandfathers would have never come home to procreate.
BTTT!