Mummelmann said:
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. |
IBM does not make a whole country. When war broke out in Europe, the U.S. had finances that accumulated, as stated previously, from supplying weapons, and I forgot to mention, land grants. Land grants that weren't sold to the Nazis, but the British did buy a good amount.
It's pretty insulting of you to claim that the whole reason the U.S. was involved in the war to begin with is because of fear of recession as you put it, and that it would have affected trade with mostly Britain. The U.S. was still making a profit while fighting the war. Why? Whose making the goods to supply to the West?
At that time, Ford Motors was still the world's biggest auto manufacturer, they and other car manufacturers made plane parts, tanks, jeeps, armored personal carriers that were ordered by FDR: To help the war cause and stop producing automobiles. Each one of those manufacturers made a profit during the war.
After the war, the U.S. was the only country that wasn't affected deeply from the war, wasn't in a financial crisis, if anything, got more wealthy as a result. The finances, and yes, the atom bomb helped the U.S. from no longer being a World Power, but a Superpower.
As for your statement of a "3 front war," you see, when you say South, which you are implying Southern Europe, countries such as Italy, Greece, and what was still back then Yugoslavia come to mind. Those countries were secured under the Axis Powers (Both Germany and Italy did their share in controlling that territory). Thr Axis Powers did not gain control in all of Eastern Europe, nor did they gain all of Western Europe. If the Nazis beat the Soviet Union and Britain, what other nation that was involved throughout the war would have been left standing?
You say that the Soviets put some heavy hitting on the Nazis in Germany, but here's the thing, that was towards the end of the war in Europe, which is what I said earlier. How about the hand-to-hand fighting that was going on between the Nazis and Soviets during the latter stages of Stalingrad? People freezing to death? People and soldiers starving? (Which had a nasty effect on the Ukraine). The whole reason why the Soviet Union was capable of producing more artilery is because the Soviets started making their weapons close to Siberia, away from Nazi contact.
I already know that Hitler hated the communists, probably more so than Jews because the communists (Soviets) were putting up a good fight.
As for Stalin, Stalin would have loved an influence on all of Europe, but he had to settle on a part of Germany being the most Western communist state. The U.S. and British were aware of what were to happen if the Soviets made it first to Germany, but fortunately, unfortunately, whichever way you look at it, the Nazis still put up a fight.
Norway was to be the main staging point for an attack on the U.K.
