Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to re: Defeating the Nazis alone

An excellent summary of the land war
Larry J — (archived)

I fully agree with you that the Soviet Union played the decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany. Without the Soviets, I don't think the US and British could've defeated Germany, especially if the Germans had conquered the Soviet Union with its vast natural resources.

On top of your excellent summary of the Soviet Union's weapons, I would add that the contributions of the US and British were significant to the Soviets, such as keeping the sea lanes open (with the British Navy playing the lead role in this) so the Lend-Lease materials could get through. The USAAF and RAF conducted a strategic bombing campaign against Germany that hampered their industrial capacity, especially in oil production. Neither the Soviet Union nor the Germans had a strategic bombing capability. The Germans couldn't reach the main Soviet production centers in the Urals, and the Soviets couldn't reach the German factories along the Rhine.

The fact that the threat of invasion before D-Day and the aftermath of the invasion required the Germans to keep huge forces in the West. Had we not been in the war, all of those forces could've been directed against the Soviets, making things much tougher for them. In the end, the Soviets probably would have won anyway, but at an even higher cost than they paid.

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