Famine said:
That post is as ignorant as the few Americans who claim that they were the sole reason WWII was won. Americans did make a few dollars here and there supplying to the Nazis, but they made more by supplying their artilery, tanks, and planes to Great Britain. As a matter of fact, Churchill's constant begging and pleading to FDR to join the war is what probably made the U.S. to cease exportation to Nazi Germany (That, and U.S. citizens hated the Nazis). The U.S. did not join the war due to economic instability, but because the Japanese attacked the U.S. You don't even mention Pearl Harbor in your post. The U.S. joined the war officially the next day, December 08, 1941. You mean to tell me the U.S. sat on their asses doing nothing for 2 years? Even before the attack, you failed to mention how a few U.S. soldiers volunteered to aid Britain when it was under attack, and you failed to mention how the Commanding General for Allied troops in Europe was an American. One thing in peculiar that is quite ironic is that Britain and France made a pact with Poland to help fight off the Germans if they invaded. Well the Germans did invade, but where were the Brits and French? Here's the ironic part, Polish aviators made up the huge concentration of foreigners who aided Britain, and people still argue that their effort shifted the tide in Britain. There were other who aided Britain as well, such as Canadians, the French, and yes, even Americans. As for the Soviets, why was it that half of the Soviet soldiers carried ammunition and the other half only had rifles when they were defending Stalingrad? Maybe after they started pushing the Nazis back West were they able to better mass-produce artilery, but most certainly they didn't have sufficient war material. What made the Nazis face defeat? Simple. A war on two fronts. Hitler thought Britain and the Soviet Union were hanging on by a wire, which they most certainly did, but he thought that was enough to win the war, which would ultimately prove to be wrong. |
A few dollars? IBMwould not be what it is today if it wasn't for the massive earnings from counting machines and other equipment sold to the nazi's.
Yes, the US joined after Pearl Harbor, know why? The minute you're attacked during a major war, your economy IS threatened, and recession is bound to strike your nation, thus making the benefits of dealing neutraly with the warring parties significantly smaller.
Eastern european pilots were much coveted since most of western europe's soldiers were trained either as infantry or cavalry, or in some instances the navy. Pilots were a rare commodity indeed.
Germany actually had a 3 front war, technically having to defend and maintain eastern europe, southwest russian outlying areas and western europe through Italy and France, not to mention the whole Africa debacle that housed some of WWII finest tactical minds and moves. The Russians focused everything on the war, dedicating every last scrap of resources to manufacturing war gear and maintaining their massive lines of soldiers. In Stalingrad, there was a makeshift tank factory having been a tractor factory before the war, that got attacked. It housed a 30.000 man shootout! That's one big facility. And when the Russians laid siege to Berlin, they shot more artillery in one day than they had under the entire war combined at the city...
Hitler saw communism as a threat to his plans, and Stalin saw Hitlers nation as a valuable resource he wanted to harvest, and a place to learn or capture technology. Hitler had been producing (secretly) over 4 million rifles in facilites in Bern and Munhcen since 1934-35, so he was prepared when the attack launched. Russian soldiers, however, had to rely heavily on modified hunting rifles! Their standard Mossin rifles were actually retouched hunting rifles designed to shoot predators or large game with, and some of their first WWII tanks had boat engines produced in what is now the Ucraine and Belarus.
