"I don't think it's necessarily true that Nazi Germany would have won WWII if the United States had not entered that conflict."

That is accurate. While our history and our news focusses on US, as it should, the reality is that by June, 1944, the Russians had the war won - it was a matter of when.

John Toland, "Adolf Hitler", Volume II, page 889: "Notwithstanding the staggering losses of manpower in the past three years, Russia still had some 300 divisions of over 5,000,000 men in the field, opposing 20 undermanned German divisions totaling 2,000,000 men. The most painful surprise to the Germans was not the astounding reserve strength of the Red Army but its tenacious fighting spirit."

There must be a mistake in the "20 undermanned German divisions". It must be 200. The manpower count is what's important. And the Russians were manufacturing more and more material, could have put another 10,000,000 troops under arms.

It's true the threat from the West kept signigicant reserves tied up, and it's clear that with material help from America the Russians had 'em beat. Russia lost 20,000,000 dead in WWII, and were prepared to lose another 80,000,000. There would have been no end to the war, even if the Germans had occupied Stalingrad and Moscow.

Another American contribution was the war in the Pacific, keeping the Japanese tied up, and prevented them from attacking the USSR on it's Pacific side. That, too, was significant, as it allowed the Russians to keep only a token force on that potential front.

The second front speeded up the collapse of Germany, considerably, and one wonders what would have happened had the Germans had time to develop their jet aircraft, and had the fuel for them.

Still, the Russian hordes (not used perjoratively, by the way) had 'em on the run. And every American tank and airplane supplied to the Russians was one which wasn't manned by an American. That was a GREAT deal for both Russia and the US.

Our own history has a narrow focus, as it should, and it doesn't tell the whole story, as it can't.

I've read "Marshal Zhukov's Greatest Battles" by Georgi K. Zhukov, introduction and commentary by Harrison E. Salisbury, and what stood out was the enormous manpower available to the Russians and how well they moved them around. Our propaganda talks about the cruelty and waste of the Russian fighting forces. They were fighting on their own soil for their own Homeland, and most of what I've read that isn't Cold War propaganda talks about their high morale and great fighting spirit.

Arf