Note that Baldwin’s analysis (page 17) makes no attempt to exaggerate the western allies’ war efforts at the expense of Soviet Russia.
True; all of the other articles on the Russian Front mention that American Sherman tanks are fighting with the Red Army. These articles are giving rise to the myth that the Soviets beat the Germans with our equipment. The truth is that vast bulk of weaponry used by the USSR was home-built. Our most important contribution was trucks, about a million of them built in the United States and Canada. In fact, Studebaker made a very nice all-wheel drive heavy truck that was exclusively exported to the USSR. These trucks are not yet in front-line service in great quantity, but they will be next summer. In 1944, they will give the Soviet tank armies the “legs” they need to drive deep into German rear areas.
To some extent the Soviets are responsible for this myth. With their paranoid penchant for secrecy, they did a poor job of marketing themselves to the West. Nice “touchy-feely” articles about the regiment of T-34s purchased by the Orthodox Church, the “night witches” female bombing squadron, or a western journalists’ tour of the gigantic T-34 factory at Chelyabinsk would have done wonders in the American press. For a regime that lived on propaganda, they were actually pretty crappy at it.
But yes, Baldwin realizes that the hinge of this global war is the “war within a war;” the struggle between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.
Of course, as we learned in an exchange a few weeks ago, there really aren't any scenarios where the Germans and Russians would never have fought during the war.