Yep!. This is the reason why the allied invasion and bombing of Germany succeded that smoothly, since most of the Wehrmacht was worn out against the Red Army. It was not in the west were Germany lost its war, it was in Stalingrad.
You can be thankful that most of the heavy fighting was done by the Russians. In Germany we still speak about the "Kamerad von der Westfront" (comrade from the western front) if we want to say that someone is slow and lazy, since a stopover there was considered as a holiday. That does not mean that we take Americans as 2nd class soldiers, but the Russians were those we were really afraid of. Americans fought courageously but civilized. The situation on the eastern front was much worse for Germany and Germans.
In fact only a few capable pilots were left in Germany when the real conflict with America began in 1944. Most of those who fought against the USAF were boys with 12 hours training in a Me 109. Not very effective and easy fodder to well trained US-pilots.
I suspect the sentiment of being afraid of someone had less to do with their warfighting capability and more to do with the perceived barbarity of the opponent.
Just as the Germans would have rather fought the Americans than the Russians, the Americans would have rather fought the Germans than the Japanese.
In general, Americans were not beheading their German captives, slicing off their genitals and stuffing them in their mouths, or vice versa.
In General. So yes, I am glad that the Soviets threw their citizenry at the Germans...after all, there was a treaty that was broken and there was an invasion. We have always been fortunate in the USA...we have two oceans insulating us, and we don't have to worry about invaders coming into our country, flattening villages and the enemy lining everyone up against the wall and shooting them. We have a lot to be thankful for as Americans. Would my country have fought with the same degree of barbarity if Germany had invaded the USA and used the same tactics they did on the Soviets or the Soviets on the Germans? Unfortunately, probably yes. The fighting in the Pacific took place outside of urban areas for the most part, and it was barbaric. No quarter was given out there. American soldiers killed Japanese with no more compulsion than if it had been killing rats in many cases.
When Americans came into town, the people in Germany didn't go running out the other side of the town towards the Soviet lines to try and make it across to them, and there was a reason for that.
Just curious though...if Germany's good fighter pilots were gone by 1944, where did they go and when?
As far as I know, they were there in 1939 through 1942 still adding to their scores. Did the Russians killed them all off? Or was it the American bomber raids? Or was it the British? 1943 must have been a really bad year if they all disappeared in 1943.
Of course, for the Japanese, all THEIR really good pilots DID disappear in 1943, with few exceptions.