[medved]

What's your point? The US did come late into the war, but there is a darn good chance that the Russians would have been defeated had they not received significant amounts of American aid, not to mention that the US/British invasion of North Africa diverted considerable resources from the Eastern front.

What many don't realize is that the true second front in Europe starting from 42 was in the air over Germany. Aside from turning Germany into a pigpen from end to end, the air war absorbed something like half of Germany's production of heavy guns (for AA) which otherwise would have been available for the Eastern front.

[Lee_Atwater]

One step further...The U.S. landing on North Africa (November 1942) drew the Afrika Korps away from concentrating solely on the British. Hence, arguably the best soldiers in the Wehrmacht were forced to surrender in mid 1943. They spent the rest of the war as prisoners in various camps in North America, instead of on a battlefield.