60%!
Without American industry placed in the service of the Russian war effort the Germans would have acquired the USSR, and with it the natural resources and oil of Siberia.
Some Russian kids died for us you know.
I was taught about that by Joseph Sutton (referenced elsewhere in an earlier post). I grew up about a mile from Naval Ordinance in Indianapolis. That's where they made the Norden Bombsight. They made other stuff there as well. Boy Scouts regularly visited the Allison engine factory where you could see the engines they built for airplanes used against the Germans by the Brits, the Russians and ourselves.
Almost all the adult males in my family (both sides) served in the war, and all the women worked in war industries or government agencies devoted to the war effort.
It was total mobilization of a kind that's almost unimagineable.
RE the Norden bombsight: I read that the Norden bombsight was regarded as such an advanced weapons system that it was a top secret, but technical personell examining shot-down German bombers discovered that the Germans actually had a better bombsight than we did. Oh, well.
I wrote a couple of papers on Ryan's books. One was on A Bridge Too Far, shortly before the movie came out. I sat in the theater telling my friends what was going to happen next until they told me to shut up.
Many thanks to all your family for serving is such a great cause. I and the world owes them plenty, and I will always keep them in my thoughts.
I have no such bragging rights, our family was more involved in the South Pacific, Luzon particulary... then that's a whole other story.
Lurker