“But, WOULD they have helped us? I don’t know what kind of aid they provided when the war was going on.”
The Russians provided soldiers and a lot them. Many Americans are not aware that the largest battles that the German Army fought were against Russia. Without the Eastern Front there is no way that the Allies could have landed on the European mainland. Germany was far too strong until they bled themselves fighting the USSR.
“So after V-E, were the Soviets “war weary” too?”
Probably, but they found the energy to gobble up two northern Japanese islands before Japan surrendered. If the war had gone on longer they would have taken even more.
“The problem I have is the total capitulation to the Soviets.”
There wasn’t total capitulation. America and England needed Russia to keep fighting on the Eastern Front. Stalin had the option of stopping at the Russian frontier which would have freed up German divisions to be sent west to fight us. That’s the last thing that we wanted. Fighting was tough enough without giving Germany the chance to double its forces in the west.
Again, the idea that we should have risked alienating the Soviets is a luxury afforded only to those living long after the war. A Germany free to turn all of its firepower to the west is a far different animal than the one that we defeated.
Now, had the Germans not expended so many resources at say Stalingrad, would they have been able to stop the Allies in Europe?
Conventional wisdom says that Hitler ONLY lost, because he split his armies in third.
Eastern front with Soviets (a MILLION men lost), Southern front in Africa, and Western front, directly with US/ UK.
What think you if Hitler had said to hell with the Soviets?
Could he have won WWII?
And in your opinion, what would he have done with the Pacific, had he beaten us in Europe?