Are British kids taught that we (America) saved them in WW2?
Posted by: Cynthia Thomson
Source: https://www.quora.com/Are-British-kids-taught-that-we-America-saved-them-in-WW2
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You left out Russia. According to Wikipedia, 80% of WWII combat was fought on Germany’s Eastern Front. The Russians suffered 25 million deaths. The battle of Kursk was the biggest battle in history involving over 2 million soldiers and almost 10 thousand tanks.
I’m not a fan of Russian politics but the Russian people fought magnificently. The war would not have been won without them.
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Ok, this implies that the US‘s entry to the war only served to shorten it and that Britain/Europeans would have eventually won the war without the US.
What is this based on? Prior to the US entry to the war in Europe, were the Nazis ever turned back? Russia’s success in a DEFENSIVE campaign is certainly noted but if they had been allowed to retreat, lick their wounds, apply lessons learned, and continue to develop more and better tools (long range heavy bombers, advanced V2 rockets, jet aircraft, nuclear weapons), who was going to stop them? What European country was ramping up their war production machine in a way to defeat the Nazis?
The title of this thread is History Lesson, so please, school us here on how exactly Britain or anyone else on that continent was going to defeat the Nazis minus US intervention. (Note the question…DEFEAT the Nazi Empire, not win a single defensive battle ala the soviets or the Battle of Britain.)
By that same logic, the UK won the war for us because it’s extremely unlikely we’d have been able to stage and maintain a land offensive in Europe without them, and they didn’t need us to maintain their independence - no number of V2s or heavy bombers were going to make them surrender. I think it’s accurate to say the US was necessary to winning the war, because it would have gone very differently without our Lend-Lease first and then our direct involvement later, but the UK and USSR were also necessary. None of us could have done it on our own, or even any combination of two.
That said, this is just @ombugge being an anti-American troll again, the bait ain’t worth the hook. I wish he’d stop.
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I disagree with some of your points but rather than giving him an out to deflect away from his premise (a specialty of his) I would like an answer from him (or anybody) of what was the path to ending the third Reich with no US involvement (which includes no US aid to the Russians).
Please walk us through exactly who was going to defeat Hitler and how they were going to do it.
The fact is: without the USA, OMbugge and everyone else in Europe would be speaking German today.
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Yes. The two battles of El Alemein were the start of forcing the Nazis to retreat, not necessarily Europe but an essential precursor to the invasion of Europe.
The fact is that without Britain … standing alone … Hitler would have taken and held Europe before the USA got over its cowardly isolationism and internal Nazism.
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Yes that is historical facts!! (Well know for those who are actually interested in facts)
Soviet Union fought the biggest land battels in the European theater during WWII, lost the most people and suffered “sourced earth” destruction in large parts of it’s European territory.
Luckily they still had a large industrial base and source of oil and raw materials in the Asian parts of the Soviet Union.
It is also a fact that at the end of the war the Soviet army got to the gates of Berlin first:
And the Battle of Stalingrad was the decisive turning point in the war a long time before the landing at Normandy:
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-battle-of-stalingrad
Sorry Jug but El Alemein was late 1942, quite a while after the US entry to the war in Europe.
And since it appears you don’t read much history, it was US supplied tanks and equipment delivered by US ships and mariners that tipped the scales.
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The US entered the war in Europe in Dec 1941, but didn’t actually show up straight away when there were desperate battles fought for years. I read a lot of history, but it’s not all about the magnificence of the glorious, magnanimous USA without whom we’d all be Nazis.
We all sincerely appreciate the USA’s war contribution in both fighting and logistics but the question first asked if the Nazis were ever pushed back early in the war, the strong inference being they weren’t until US troops started fighting. I may have that inference wrong. My response simply highlighted the fact that British led forces had achieved a significant victory, saving Egypt and the Suez Canal from falling.
I doubt any US soldiers died forcing back Rommel from Egypt but they certainly did when Eisenhower executed Operation Torch well to the west.
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Second attempt:
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Perhaps a patriotic German could have snuffed Hitler in the early 1930s.
Oh, it must be a learning disability then.
Your input on this issue despite your lack of subject matter awareness is disturbing but it is illustrative.
Here are some search terms that lead to reading material that might reduce the amount of back pedaling you are forced to perform:
Overall, Operation Torch cost the lives of about 1,300 French, 526 Americans, and 574 British. (What’s the problem, not enough dead Americans for you?)
Captain Robert Moffat Losey
Eagle Squadrons and other RAF personnel (hundreds if not thousands of Americans)
USS Reuben James (DD-245) (my father had a friend on the Reuben James - there is a song about it for those with reading comprehension problems)
Have someone look up the names of the 243 American mariners who died in action before December 1941.
American Merchant Marine Casualties.htm
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What a mess .
Counting time for thread closure but before that happens, my interpretation/understanding with my limited knowledge of history is this:
WW II -european theatre would not end in May 1945 without:
a) First : USA economic and material help ( irrespective if free or not )
b) second : USA troops involvement as part (major or not) of allied forces.
Allowing Germans more time for the develpment of their advanced weapons/planes rocket systems- nukes included, could end up in advanced German planes reaching US coast across the pond and bomb them even with nukes
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Hear, hear Mrs. Cynthia Thompson & @ombugge ! Hopefully this kind of thinking continues to grow & the US is kicked out or withdraws from NATO. The European monarch countries have a long history of living prosperously at peace together. The benevolent Russia empire has always been so generous & tolerant with their European neighbors. And don’t get me started on the industrious, hardworking honest governments and cultures of the European Eastern Block Countries. The Brits & Europeans have so much natural resources with a proud united populace that would come together as a fierce fighting force if need be WITHOUT the United States of America. I hope & pray the USA is kicked out or withdraws from NATO in my life time so the Brits & Europeans can be rid of our heavy-handed politics.
BTW, the blockbuster European Film industry should remake Rocky IV where the crowd is chanting EU!, EU!, EU! at the end of it because it was actually France, Norway & Estonia that broke the Soviet Union & won the Cold War, NOT the USA. Let’s get out of NATO please.
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It wasn’t “Russia “. It was Soviet Union. Sometimes it makes me sick how ignorant people are. Only appx.50% of Red army soldiers were russian. About 30 % were Ukrainians and rest were other people such as Georgians, Armenians, Kazakhs, Uzbek, Tartar, Jews, etc.
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Just curious, who exactly won war for Britain than?
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Perhaps your problem is that you cannot comprehend written English. I specifically acknowledged the US deaths in Operation Torch. But they did not contribute to the stopping of the Nazis taking Egypt which, if geography is also a weak point for you, is somewhere else than Operation Torch was way to the west. Torch was shortly after El Alamein if reading calendars is difficult for you too.
I can write slower so you can keep up.