Something else— to this day contemporary Russian historians fully acknowledge that without the massive industrial manufactured war materials (trucks, ammunitition, food stuffs) sent to Russia by the US, the Soviets would never have defeated Nazi Germany on their front. Germany would have overrun Soviet Russia (as vindication for WWI when Germany still lost, even though the German Military backed the Bolshevik Revolution to get Russia out of WWI. It of course, did not work).
Patton’s observation at the end of WWII was that we should continue to take out the Soviets— complete the elimination of all the spectrum of Leftist Socialism/Communism. He was right and could have shortened the misery of the Russian people some 50 plus years had this happened.
The truth of the matter is that at the end of World War II the Russians had the strongest armies. They were the ones who actually beat Germany, and took the brunt of everything. I am not sure that the western armies at the end of the war could’ve been motivated to fight the Russian army.
That is correct about the supplies. But Patton was functionally a lunatic when he said we should launch a war with Russia.
At that moment, the Red Army was damned tough and huge. Had we attacked them, that would have been a brutal battle with probably double the casualties we had already suffered. We would nearly certainly have seen mutinies break out
.
Imagine fighting the nazi armies all the way across Europe, and when the Germans collapse, now we have to team up with those same hated krauts and attack a very tough ally.
And for extra fun, the nuclear bomb was not ready yet, and Japan was still waiting to be invaded and subdued. Patton was a genius when it came to cavalry operations and tank warfare. But he was a blithering idiot on this land war with the USSR, and on religion. He believed he was reincarnated several times and fought in Roman Legions.
I suspect anyone thinking we needed to gather up all the Germans we could and refight the eastern front after the German defeat was not a grunt.