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To: thoughtomator; FreedomPoster

“First Western landing in Europe was in September 1943.”

Russia faced 60% of the German Army. Not 100%. And meanwhile, the west bombed Germany. It was not decisive in itself, but it caused massive destruction, death, hardship and tied up enormous resources.

The Eastern front saw a lot of men die compared to the west. That was because the Soviets didn’t mind killing their people, and the Germans knew surrender meant death. But logistics often wins or loses war, and our logistical efforts, and what we did to hamper German ones, were at least as important as how many Russians died.

“Extrapolating from available statistics, researchers estimate that British-supplied tanks made up 30 to 40 percent of the entire heavy and medium tank strength of Soviet forces before Moscow at the beginning of December 1941, and certainly made up a significant proportion of tanks available as reinforcements at this critical point in the fighting.”

https://www.historynet.com/did-russia-really-go-it-alone-how-lend-lease-helped-the-soviets-defeat-the-germans.htm

“A total of 22,800 armoured vehicles were delivered to the Red Army during World War II, of which 1,981 were lost in dangerous Arctic convoys. These deliveries represented about 20 percent of the total number of armoured vehicles produced by Russia during the war. Specifically, this was 16 per cent of Russian main battle tanks, 12 per cent of Russian self-propelled gun carriages and tank destroyers, and 100 per cent of Russian infantry fighting vehicles, as Russia did not manufacture any armoured infantry fighting vehicles during the Second World War....

...Of much more decisive importance for Russian warfare, however, were the deliveries of motor vehicles, especially from the United States. During the Second World War, Russia built only 343,624 cars and trucks, since the major automobile manufacturers, such as the GAZ factories, were used to manufacture armoured combat vehicles. The USA alone supplied the Russians with 501,660 tactical wheeled and tracked vehicles, including 77,972 Jeeps, 151,053 1.5 t trucks and 200,622 2.5 t trucks.”

https://ww2-weapons.com/lend-lease-tanks-and-aircrafts/

“Now they say that the allies never helped us, but it can’t be denied that the Americans gave us so many goods without which we wouldn’t have been able to form our reserves and continue the war,” Soviet General Georgy Zhukov said after the end of WWII.

“We didn’t have explosives, gunpowder. We didn’t have anything to charge our rifle cartridges with. The Americans really saved us with their gunpowder and explosives. And how much sheet steel they gave us! How could we have produced our tanks without American steel? But now they make it seem as if we had an abundance of all that. Without American trucks we wouldn’t have had anything to pull our artillery with....

...The USSR received a total of 44,000 American jeeps, 375,883 cargo trucks, 8,071 tractors and 12,700 tanks. Additionally, 1,541,590 blankets, 331,066 liters of alcohol, 15,417,000 pairs of army boots, 106,893 tons of cotton, 2,670,000 tons of petroleum products and 4,478,000 tons of food supplies made their way into the Soviet Union.”

https://www.rbth.com/defence/2016/03/14/lend-lease-how-american-supplies-aided-the-ussr-in-its-darkest-hour_575559

“Food comprised almost five million out of the 18 million tons of goods that the USSR received from the Allies. Especially popular among soldiers and civilians during the war was canned meat...The volume of canned meat received from America exceeded the amount produced in the Soviet Union sixfold.”

https://www.rbth.com/history/328243-us-and-uk-firepower-lendlease

Wars are not won by generals. They are won by logistics.


51 posted on 06/11/2019 8:48:18 AM PDT by Mr Rogers (Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools)
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To: Mr Rogers
Wars are not won by generals. They are won by logistics.

Bingo. As the old adage goes, "An army marches on its belly."
83 posted on 06/11/2019 12:03:56 PM PDT by Antoninus ("In Washington, swamp drain you.")
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