Which country do you think deserves most of the credit for winning world war 2?

Question

Lets not just say the country that we are a part of. Im still thinking over this one, but i can say for sure it wasnt America. In terms of sacrafice the Russians did well, and the British held off the Germans amazingly, not to mention the beggining of the SAS........

Answer 1

A decisive role was played by the USSR, USA, and Britain. THE decisive roll was played by the USSR, go ask its 20 million dead.....

Just to give you an idea of battle deaths on both sides check these out:
EASTERN FRONT:
Stalingrad: 1.8 million
Siege of Leningrad: 1.5 million
Moscow 1941-42: 700,000
Smolensk 1941: 500,000
Kiev 1941: 400,000
Vorenesh 1942: 370,000
Belarus 1941: 370,000
2nd Rzhev-Sychevka: 270,000
Caucasus 1942: 260,000
Kursk: 230,000
Lower Dnieper: 170,000
Kongsberg: 170,000
Rostov: 150,000
Budapest: 130,000
and others with less killed

Whereas on the Western Front
Battle of France 180,000
Normandy: 132,000
El Alamein: 70,000
Battle of the Bulge: 38,000

Answer 2

The USSR would have eventually won WWII in Europe without any aid if necessary, they just would have lost more people. Stalin wanted aid from the US and Britain so that the losses wouldn't be as severe but he was never happy with the slow progress we were making while the Soviets were dying.

Ultimately, it wouldn't have mattered how many Soviets died they would have kept right on fighting through to France if they were the only ones in the war. Their industry was safe beyond the Urals, they had a treaty with Japan, and their leader didn't care too much about casualty levels.

Another way to look at this isn't who won the war but how spectacularly Hitler lost it. Germany was fighting in the West, the East, and the South in Italy. They were on too many fronts. They underestimated their rivals in the East on racial grounds. When they were invading the satellite states of the Soviet Union they were greated as liberators and could have obtained support in the fight until they unleashed the SS on those people and massacred, raped, etc.

And above all they focused their trains and men on the Holocaust instead of the fight to win the war. It also doesn't help to kill off citizens that could have been soldiers.

Now all that being said, the way it worked out needed all of the countries involved: Poland's resistance providing the Enigma Code Breaker, Britain standing strong, the US industry, etc.

The Pacific, however, was pretty clear cut as a US effort.

Answer 3

There is no question about WWII. USA was the decisive factor both in Europe and in the Pacific. Sure the Russians suffered the most, but getting slaughtered is not the same as winning a war. During the war the US navy was larger than the combined Navies of the rest of the world, the air force was larger than the combined air forces of the rest of the world. In short it was the Yankee Horde that made the difference.

Hitlers blunders saved the British and the Russians. The RAF was almost wiped out when the Germans switched from bombing british air bases to bombing cities, giving the RAF a breather and allowing them to gain strength. The decision to capture Stalingrad rather than the oil fields wrecked the Russian campaign.

Answer 4

UM....The British and the Russians got their butts kicked by the Germans. The Japanese Owned China. All of europe was on the verge of collapsing under nazi rule...THEN the Japanese decided to attack the united states.

America got ticked off and took on the entire axis of evil, all at the same time! It was then the Russians began their push, the british were almost destroyed completly before we got into it.

Russians lost the most men.

America delivered the most fire power.

British just held on.

France surrendered(Big surprise there..)

Germany would have won if they didnt attack Russia.

Japan got Nuked.

Italy was a pretty much non issue, as Italian towns liberated themselves


Im giving America the most credit for winning the war, as..you know we actually DID end the war with the Atomic Bomb...

Answer 5

More Germans died in engagements with the Russians than against any other nation's forces. They kept Germany occupied for such a long time, then pushed them all the way back to Germany.

The British held on for dear life, getting the crap knocked out of them. They won major battles in North Africa, and in Europe.

The United States provided supplies and weaponry (read up on Lend-Lease Program) which was very important before we entered the war. Not JUST transport vehicles as stated above. We provided tanks, trucks, halftracks. Also, the U.S. was instrumental in flipping the momentum to the Allies.

The French rolled over when Germany invaded. There was resistance within, but all in all, France got steamrolled.

It is irresponsible to say that ANY nation (except France) did not play an important role. You could certainly make an argument for ANY one of the major allied nations (except France).

I might also mention that the U.S. helped to rebuild ALL those nations after the war.....money that is still owed to the United States to this day from Japan, Germany, Britain, France. So just keep that in mind when you are bashing the United States.

Answer 6

This isn't so much the country responsible for "winning," more for letting other countries to win. I'm not in any way saying the Germans should have won, but its definitly their fault they lost. The Germans (an their annexed counterparts) put up a well fought fight in many, many ways. Politically, they even held off the reaction of other nations for what I would have considered unnaturally long, and then kept some at bay from joining the allies in very cunning ways. Ultimately, however, they overextended themselves, failed to plan accordingly, and made bad ally choices. Each of the Allies held their own on various fronts, but individually the simple fact that they had access to resources the Germans eventually failed to plan for and had better organization and leadership, shut the door on the war.
Obviously, WWII is much more complex than this, but these are the highlights that stick out to me.

Answer 7

Even we all u say the US gets the credit since it was the only one who actually wage a war at both fronts. The British made a miraculous defense against the nazis but not much in the pacific. The French were only ambushing Germans in the forests. The Soviets did lost more than any other nation but they only fought the Germans and declare war against the Japanese a month before the war by then they were almost finished.

Answer 8

It was an excellent team effort. The Russians had the biggest losses, the Brits held on when all seemed lost, and the U.S. produced the war material needed for the victory. The nations that deserve little if any credit are France and China. They were, except for some brave partisans, just bystanders in the war. How they managed to finagle seats in the U. N. after the war is hard for me to understand.

Answer 9

You shouldn't be so sure. Why would you rule out the U.S. so easily?

I think the turning point of WWII was the giant production machine of the U.S. The Russians sacrificed a horrific amount of people, but without all the equipment and supplies we contributed, I don't think any serious "counter-attack" would've occurred from the west. The British could hold their own like no other, but they never could've mounted an offensive. Without an offensive in the west, the Russians would've been eventually screwed. When the U.S. entered, we were able to overwhelm Germany with sheer numbers. The Sherman Tank, for example, was mediocre, but we made hordes of them.

But, I don't believe any of the nations could've done it without the others. It took all three - Britian, Russia, and the U.S. - and their individual areas of expertise and location to make it happen. And I don't mean to disrespect any of the other allies, but I only have a limited space to make my point.

Answer 10

The Soviet Union hands down. They would have defeated Germany without any help at all by 1947. Without them, the hopes of ever taking back Europe are ZERO. Great Britain goes down and the US never enters the continent, even through Italy. As far as material, the Soviets produced far more weapons, aircraft, ammunition and tanks than anyone else. While the US assisted them with the supplying of trucks and various transport vehicles, that is not what got them to Berlin. The world forever owes the Soviets a debt of gratitude.