We had a wild debate at work on who played a bigger part in winning ww2. I want to hear what you guys think before I add my two cents.
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We had a wild debate at work on who played a bigger part in winning ww2. I want to hear what you guys think before I add my two cents.
Banks.
Well I don't think there is much argument regarding the Pacific theater but the European is tougher. If you believe that Russia could have withstood the Wermacht invasion and regrouped to counter attack w/o allied support and the eventual second front then the answer is hands down Russia. Even if you don't believe that was possible the USSR sacrificed and accomplished a tremendous more than the allied front. If Hitler never invades Russia the world becomes a very different place.
Russia and the US are the biggest winner; Russia suffered a staggering beatdown but Yalta an Pozdam reunions granted them wayyy more territories than when the war began, the US for all the contracts to rebuild everything that allowed them to kick up their economy to an uncanny level. As for invasion, if Germany would have been more successful on the russian front, There would have been no Hiroshima and no NAgasaki, probably a Berlin and a Frankfurt or something like that, winner would be on the same side, irradiated ruins would have been located otherwise.Quote:
Originally Posted by VictorCharlie
Nameless,
I didn't think the thread starter was asking who came out the best but rather who played the biggest role in winning the war.
The winners of the economic War, was Germany since WW2 they have had very large amounts of
money pumped into there country. This Country done so and the USA, also we have not long finished
paying back the USA, what we had off them in WW2.
So the USA and GB, paid the price with lives and money are we winners but at what cost.!
GREAT BRITAIN and our European Allies and then the U.S.A
I think that without the stupid invasion of the USSR, Hitler would have mopped up Europe and also Britain before the Americans entered the frame. The Eastern Front tied down two thirds of the German Army and caused three quarters of total German military casualites.
The Soviet Union would eventually have won their war with Germany on their own, though this would have been at a price even more terrible that it actually was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by VictorCharlie
Sorry for the confusion,
Then I say the Soviets hands down, they did contained around 60% of the Germans, including their 2 best S.S divisions, the Liebenstandarde and the Totenkopf, took around 25 millions of casualties (even though a part of that is debatable as it comes from Stalin's madness) and got half of their land furrowed.
need to define terms of winning & roleQuote:
Originally Posted by mrbig1
Russia, USA then Captain America.
I agree and without England and the odd resistance in Europe, Germany would have been unstoppable by the time Japan turned on USA. The USA would have had a two headed monster to deal with and maybe on the home front; getting it from the east and west coasts if they'd stayed out of it for any longer.Quote:
Originally Posted by X
So really it would have taken in reality about 6 H bombs instead of just the two to seal them all up.
Hitler was a total dickhead and thank God nature stopped them in Russia too as well as some very good Ceck snipers on the way there as well.
Churchill was a brilliant tactician, and got plastic blow up tanks and blow up aircraft made in the hundreds of thousands and tied them down into the fields so that the German reconnaissance planes came back with photos of lines and lines of heavy munitions all facing Germany.
This bought us time to make them for real and we worked day and night and doubled Germanys output in readiness! Brilliant.
If it wasnt for the SAS in its beginnings through David Stirling down in Nth Africa, Rommel would have rolled through there close to unchallenged too.They shut those pricks down from behind their own lines (which was unheard of back then) all of a night, then would sleep under camouflaged tarps out in the baking desert during the daytime then hit their fuel dumps and aircraft again each a night.
They were hell on wheels literally to the Germans.Brilliant
If it wasnt also for the british girls and guys who broke the German secret codes used on shipping, then we would not of got as many of their carriers and destroyers or had been able to give them false information and send them into traps either. They won the navys battles as much as the men did. Brilliant.
England kept cutting off their limbs until finally others realized the immensity of it and joined in.
Sorry about this; But also knowing Japan was about to have a shot a Pearl Harbour and not saying anything at all Churchill again.Brilliant.
(but sorry about that, it really was the only way the USA would be drawn in to it all.
Thank fuck for England,if they hadnt of fought like they did on every front that they could manage then the Germans would have been coming out of Ireland at the USA by the time they'd realized the size of what was coming,that and Japan from the other side and Hitler probably would secured the northern boarders and just saved Russia till last.
Yeah thank God he was moved to do it when he did and froze half his men to death got bogged down and weakened the rest.Quote:
Originally Posted by VictorCharlie
From what I know, if Hitler didn't invade Russia it just would have been a matter of time until the USSR attacked Germany. They were rapidly modernizing their army and would never again have been as weak as they were when Germany attacked.Quote:
Originally Posted by VictorCharlie
Russia obviously paid the highest price in the war, but I'm not sure how they would have faired without the massive support provided to them by the Americans. That's not to say that the Chinese and Commonwealth countries didn't play very important roles, but I think the Russians and the Americans played the most important roles.
Liking the answers guys. I'm nowhere near an expert, but there is an excellent quote from somewhere or other which says; the war was won with American money, British brains, and Russian blood. The industrial complex spurred on by entering the European theatre more or less brought the USA out of the great depression, the Brits were brilliant tactically and made huge ground breaking German codes etc, and as has been said Russia sacrificed and accounted for far more lives lost on either side than all other nations combined if I'm not mistaken. I'm not sure whether Russia even could've realistically invaded Germany in time to alter the gains it would have otherwise made though CFH. No doubt it they would have been at war eventually, but so much of the German casualties occured merely by launching that scale of a land invasion and on behalf of the climate etc. Slash and burn techniques and the like were devestating and instrumental in losing the Russian front.