Related: How ridiculous was American production in World War 2? [images at link]
That said, due to its spiritual ad moral declension and thus the choices made at the voting booth, America today could not fight a protracted WW2 on its terms today due to decline in character and industrial might, and while the enemies of God work to destroy America from within then China stands without.
All sorts of mitigating factors “won the war” for the allies. I think the biggest one is Hitler’s incompetence as a CIC.
Cannot be over-stressed!
In the framework of Lend/Lease, America sent more motor vehicles to the U.S.S.R. that the total number that were on the road in the U.K. at that time.
Regards,
The Soviet Union was perfectly happy to supply Hitler’s War Machine while he was invading France and bombing Britain.
Left off the rest of the COMMUNIST propaganda of the great RED Army.... that Roosevelt tricked the GREAT Comrade Stalin into wasting 20 million Red Army soldiers to say the US having to die.
That IS definitely a major part of the “story” concocted about the battle between TWO incompetent socialists (Stalin vs. Hitler) intervened and manipulated by the nascent totalitarian socialist (complete with his bullcrap “2nd” Bill of Rights) F.D.R. (his entire cabinet a NEST of Stalins spies, and continuing through the idiot Truman’s clothing store).
Japans strike south focus is interesting, and likely deliberate on the part of FDR to draw Japan and US into a war (which we know he wanted). By getting Japan to focus on the pacific, Stalin was free to shift the Siberian divisions to the defense of Moscow, and they arrived in the barest nick of time to save the city.
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If Hitler had committed the Russian forces to fighting the Allies, we would have had a completely different war. He could have won as we barely did.
Red storm on the reich KU History book says:
70% percent of all combat deaths on the Eastern Front
80% of material loss on Eastern Front
75% of civilian deaths on Eastern Front
If it werent for 10 years of Japanese atrocities in China, the above numbers would be nearer to 90%. WWII could have actually been called the Great Russian and German War had the US not been involved.
something interesting I read years ago.
A Churchill plan to sideline Russia in the war by England and the US invading Greece, sweeping North and driving a wedge between the Russian and German armies, therefore denying the Russians a victory by taking over the fighting on the Eastern Front from the Russians.
The plan was rejected.
When Germany invaded Poland, they declared on two economies that greatly exceeded their own. They managed to defeat France, but when they declared war on Russia and the US that number rose to three.
So Germany was fighting three nations with manpower and industry that dwarfed its own, even with the industries captured from other countries added in.
Japan was even worse off.
Talk about your poor planning. Sometimes I am amazed at how long they lasted. I guess that shows their understanding of the way to wage war. They were tactically brilliant, but strategically moronic.
I would like to see a comparison of what the Soviets expected to gain in terms of occupied countries if Hitler had left them in the Axis as opposed to what they actually were conceded by the Allies after the war.
Joe Stalin changed sides due to Hitler turning on him. But did Stalin get more of Eastern Europe than Hitler planned to give him?
As far as lend lease went, the Soviets sent a lot of that military aid back to North Korea during the Korean War. They were far more of an adversary in the Korean War than the Chinese. As soon as Stalin died and the Soviet leaders were forced to back off with their support, the North Koreans sued for peace. Of course you would never pick up on that by watching the M.A.S.H. propaganda.
I think Daniel Yergin put his finger on it with “The Prize.” You can’t wage much of a war without oil, Hitler hadn’t any, Russia did, so to Russia he went. His low opinion of Russians just helped him make a complete fool of himself.
Moreover, Russians can put up with a lot. They’ll eat dirt and sleep on ice, or eat nothing and stay awake longer than anybody. Adversity isn’t just the mother of invention, it’s the harsh psychonanny of the Russian.
And Hitler didn’t supply his troops adequately, because he thought it’d be a brief romp. Supply lines matter. Winter came, as it had for Napoleon.
Apparently the Germans didn’t understand about mud, and frozen equipment, and other practical concerns related to Russian weather.
Not to mention, Germans were invaders, Russians were defending the motherland, and a very big land it was.
So yes, Russian ruggedness wore out the German military machine. That and Hitler’s egomania.
After a while, without oil, all those planes and tanks were just so many very big paperweights.
We (and everybody else) thought Hitler would quickly defeat the Soviet Union. Many specifics can be mentioned for the Soviet Union’s success in stopping Hitler and then going on the offense:
1.U.S. lend lease (and allied coordination in general)
2.Japan not threatening the Soviet Union (and lack of axis coordination in general)
3.Stalin’s ruthlessness with respect to his own people. I don’t think a democratic leader could have survived the losses suffered by the Soviet Union.
4.The Russian people. Their capacity to suffer. May God bless the Russian people for their noble sacrifice to save their country and entire the world.
5.The brilliant strategy (or was it a strategy) of appearing to disintegrate around Stalingrad, sucking the Germans into an army group-sized ambush.
Having said this, prior to Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, we were preparing to fight the entire gang of dictators along with their lesser allies and subordinated states. And, Churchill anticipated such a possibility.
Many people recall Churchill’s line we will fight them on the beaches, etc. Few know of what he said following this: And if it should be that we or a large part of our island is occupied, then we shall continue the war from our overseas territories until the New World comes to the rescue and liberation of the Old.
Churchill was referring to us, boys and girls, back in the days we were great.
Two Words: L E N D L E A S E
Some sources say that 80% of German forces were deployed to the east.
Not inconcievable that DDay would have been in 1945 rather than 1944 if the wermacht were evenly deployed.
I think allied air superiority would have carried the day eventually.
I think the 800,000 Germans who surrendered at Stalingrad were more than were deployed on the western front.
Bump for later reading
I think you have to look at how Stalin viewed the value of his own people.
Even without the Allies the Russians would still have beaten Germany
Russia won the war for the Allies? Marxist propaganda.
Any discussion of what won the war for the allies must include the Ultra decrypts.