Soviet commander admits USSR came close to defeat by Nazis (banned Zhukov interview aired)

Telegraph ^ | 05/05/10

[j-damn]

Moronic.

The Soviets slaughtered millions of all sorts and creeds before Hitler ever got close to sniffing power.

And if you think G-d works so quickly on behalf of a specific group, well, he sure didn’t help very fast in Germany.

[Ditto]

I don’t care how much oil the nazi war machine could have extracted from the Caucasus, or whether the Soviets were defeated or not, Patton would have still ended up in Berlin, VICTORIOUS.

I kind of doubt that. Facing the entire German army would have driven our losses well beyond what Americans were willing to accept. The Western Allies (Patton included) never once faced to full force of the German army since the majority of that army was on the Eastern front which made the Western front look like a side show.

[AdvisorB]

It’s a hypothetical that neither one of us will ever really know. Would there have been a Bolshevik coup in 1917, if Kerensky would have had Vladimir Illych Ulyanov (Lenin) executed? Well, probably not, but we will never know the answer to that question. But it is always fascinating to speculate.

I don’t agree with you, because I believe that the USA was the emerging dominant superpower in the forties, and that in the end, the Axis powers could not have stopped this new dominant power from achieving it’s tactical and strategic goals.

Remember, we’re talking about America circa, the mid 1940s, and not the soft America of today. Those Americans were a different breed, and would have sacrificed whatever it took to support American forces in harm’s way fighting the Axis powers.

Also, I think you have to factor in that Germany was essentially a defeated nation after Stalingrad, and had the German army had the good fortune of knocking the Soviets out of the war, they would have been so weakened by the Red Army, that they would not have been able to stop the Patton blitz that would have, in my estimation, eventually overwhelmed any opposition as Patton rolled into Berlin.

Also, the idiot Hitler was essentially making the strategic decisions, and there is no way that Hitler is able to out-general George Patton. Manstein, given carte blanche control of German forces, makes the Patton, (the second greatest general after Manstein) full scale press against Berlin very interesting. But my money is still on Patton to ultimately prevail.

And lastly, Truman, Patton, Nukes....I’m afraid that’s too much firepower from stopping Patton from riding victorious into Berlin in 1945.