Have to agree with that. The probable outcome would have been A-bombs on Berlin while the Russkies were still out around the Vistula.
My dad was with the Merchant Marine in WWII and made the Murmansk runs. Came back with all kinds of tales.
Butter was rationed here in the States Big Time. He said the Russians had never seen butter wrapped in one pound packages and were peeling them open and slapping them on the axles of wagons, thinking it was grease.
The Russians had a lot of hotshot fighter pilots and one of the tricks they would pull on taking off was to just retract the wheels to become airborne instead of pulling up. A lot of them never made the end of the runway.
When they were attacked on the way up, the shop steward would be running around on deck counting the number of bombs dropped and torpedoes fired at them. Seems they got a bonus for each bomb or torpedo.
When they were strafed, everyone headed below decks, except the poor Armed Guard (Navy personnel) who had to try and shoot back. These guys were getting $60 a month while the merchant guys were raking in the dough. They usually passed the hat at the end of the trip and gave it to the sailors. On some ships that didn't happen.
If you served on an ore carrier or an ammunition ship you didn't bother keeping a lifejacket handy when you went to bed. The ore carrier would sink like a rock and the ammunition ship would just vaporize.
Life expectancy in those waters was about 30 minutes at best if you had to abandon ship - a little longer, not much, in a lifeboat. They were told if they were in the water when depth charges were being dropped, they were to put their hands over their rectums, otherwise the concussion would gut them.
They earned all that big money.
From 1941 and onwards, the RKKA used extensive numbers of Lend-Lease tanks received from the USA, Canada and Great Britain. Approximately 22.800 AFVs were sent to the Soviet Union between June 22nd of 1941 to 30th of April 1944, and almost 2.000 of these were lost at sea.
In addition, the Russians got about 351.700 trucks and 78.000 Jeeps from the USA.
During 1941, 487 Matilda, Valentine and Tetrarch tanks were received from Great Britain, and 182 M3A1 "Stuart", and M3 Lee medium tanks were received from the USA. In 1942, a further 2.487 tanks were received from the UK, and 3.023 tanks from the USA. The first units equipped with Valentines and Matilda IIs fought in the Staraya Russia and Valdai areas in the winter of 1941/42. Usually tank units were allotted a single type of Lend-Lease tanks to simplify logistics. An example was the 38th Tank Brigade which in 1942 had 30 Matilda II tanks, and 16 T-60 light tanks. In 1944 and 1945, the American M4A2 were the highest appreciated Lend/Lease tank, and some tank corps and mechanized corps were entirely equipped with this type. In early 1945 the 1st Guards Mechanized Corps were equipped with Shermans in all of its tank units.