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| Sqrl said: @Mummelmann,
(Red countries are Allied or Allied-controlled, Blue denotes Axis or Axis controlled countries, and the Soviet Union is colored Green prior to joining the Allies in 1941) Watch this animated gif I got from Wikipedia, keep in mind the two important dates for when the US started giving support to the Allies. Dec '41 and June '44, the first date is obviously the 8th of Dec when the US formally joined the Allies and initial supply support was initiated. The second date is obviously Operation Overlord (aka Battle for Normandy) Which started on the 6th of June with the precursor invasion known as Operation Neptune (some of you played through this operation a bit in the BIA series). Both dates coincide with huge allied advancements in the months following that point. This should be a stark contrast to the constant Allied defeats happening prior to the the US joining the Allies. There are a number of huge victories the US wasn't very involved with however. The best example I can think of off the top of my head is Operation Crusader (Nov/Dec '41) where the British 8th Army headed up by Allen Cunningham (not the poker player) finally defeated Erwin Rommel or some of you may remember him as the "Desert Fox". He had a legendary status amongst the troops in Africa and many thought he was unbeatable. It was in large part due to the cunning leadership of Cunningham that they were able to defeat him, another big factor was that the Allies were very effectively cutting Rommel's supply lines. But this was still before the US entered the war so no credit to them on this one. There are countless situations involving every country where impacts were made. But the bottom line is that once the US entered the war the overall tide began to turn and it stayed turn. PS - I am by no means a "History Buff", I have only read through the Wikipedia WW2 info a couple of times and I watch a large amount of the History Channel is all. |
I know that the US had a large impact on the war, but I think that Russia (or USSR) had the biggest impact. At one point, Stalin had over one third of the entire German army tied up in combat, and Hitler was dead set on conquering Russia over anything else. Almost everything he did (including invading Norway as the first major northern nation) was staged so that he'd have a good launch point for his campaign against Stalin. Communism was a great threat to the Third Reich, and Hitler wanted it gone, at any expense.
The US lost some 150-200.000 soldiers in WW2, while Russia lost about 20.000.000 people, 7.000.000 of which were soldiers. Of course, Germany had the biggest total losses, and at one point near the mid '40's almost all industry was governed, conducted and driven by women! There were no men to clear out the ruble in major citites after artillery or bombing either, so thousands of women with spades and wheelbarrows could be seen clearing up debris at all times. They were called trymmer frauen (almost correct at least, El Duderino can probably spell it properly), which means something like ladies of the ruins.
PS: Did you know that during Russia's major attack against Berlin at the end of the war, they bombarded the city with more artillery than had been used during the entire war? Ouch.
