Why do so many Americans believe they saved Britain during WWII?

Question

Britain had already fought and won the Battle of Britain (09July - 31 October 1940) widely recognised as the turning point of the war.Therefore we were already on the road to victory.
The Americans did not enter the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor (07 December 1941 ).
Do you really all believe the Hollywood version of things?

Answer 1

You have answered your own question. Hollywood.

The fact is that since the 1950's the UK has not had a film industry so any big budget war movie has been made in the U.S and has therefore been made to sell to an American audience.

Even if you look at the old British war movies in black and white, you will always find an American star in one of the lead roles, because that was the only way to sell movies.

Memphis Belle, the film about the B17 was actually based on a script about a RAF Lancaster, but no studio would finance it. Change it to a B17 with a cast of heartthrobs wearing their hats at odd angles and you have a winner.

Saving Private Ryan, a film about D-Day which has left a generation of people thinking that D-Day was an all American show, when in actual fact there were five simultaenous landings, of which 2 were American, 2 were British, and 1 was Canadian. In fact the first soldiers to touch French soil were British Paratroopers who took vital canal and river crossings behind the beachheads.

U571 about how the U.S navy captured an Enigma machine, when the real true life story was that the first enigma machine was captured by the Royal Navy before the U.S even entered the war. It was then sent down to the establishment at Bletchly near Milton Keynes where the code was cracked and it remains there to this day on display.

Apparantly there is now a film coming out of Hollywood which shows the Battle of Britain being won by a bunch of square jawed quarterbacks, which is the final insult as there were only a handful of them who came over as volunteers and formed one squadron (Eagle Squadron). Whilst their contribution is much appreciated it was a drop in the ocean.

For balance however, even though the Brits won the Battle of Britain, and also defeated Rommels Afrika Corps at El Alamein, thereby winning in Africa, both of which were significant victories, we could not have won the war without American equipment (particularly tanks, trucks and jeeps) and the vast amount of American manpower which they could field. We are a small country and were incredibly badly prepared for war.

We could have held the Germans off from invasion and were defeating them in the middle east, but we would never have had the resources alone to liberate Europe.

Lets also not forget the Russians who literally bled the German Army to death at the gates of Stalingrad, Leningrad and Moscow.

In summary though, modern cinema has a way of seducing and brainwashing its audience and I'm afraid that we now have a global generation who is used to seeing the USA win everything, where the best the British film industry can manage is to portray our great little country as something stuck in a victorian timewarp.

P.S To SE FU who seems to have learned history from a comic book.

Just wanted to correct a couple of things.

D-Day - There were five invasion beaches, 2 of which were American 2 of which were British and 1 of which was Canadian. It was not a U.S show!

The defeat of Germany then involved three Armies which was the Russians from the East, the Americans moving up through Central Europe and the Brits through Northern Europe.

The Allied armies almost ground to a halt due to logistics after D-Day and it was the Brits who fought hard to open up the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp so that Patton could get his fuel and tanks.

Battle of Britain - The RAF were not getting "killed" but actually won the battle against a superior force of ten to one. There were huge losses but the Germans lost more and were the ones to cancel the invasion and also withdraw from the battle. Thats a victory.

There were no V2 rockets until 1944 and in actual fact the V1 rocket (doodlebug) did more damage. Neither did as much damage as conventional air raids.

Opinion is one thing but facts are facts.

Answer 2

They certainly helped. However Hollywood has a lot to answer for and many British get annoyed with reconstructions of the past eg U571 or whatever where the key facts are completely altered - the recovery of the enigma machine was a British operation not an American one.

The lend-lease programme didn't really help the Battle of Britain by the way - 50 old destroyers didn't do a lot of good in an air battle mate and Spitfires / Hurricanes were made here!

Americans just haven't been taught a true picture of the whole war - they pick up what they know from largely inaccurate TV and film.

Mind you at least this stuff had a plot - the current crop of reality TV programmes teach us absolutely nothing - I'd prefer some entertainment personally.

Answer 3

A few points.

"We" had already won the Battle of Britain??? I think you will find that the best pilots who registered the most kills were the Polish!!!! So you would be more correct in saying that "We supplied the planes to the Polish with which they won the Battle of Britain".

US support was vital more from a logistical point of view. The Yanks talk of Normandy but what they fail to remember is that if the Russian hadn't forced the germans to commit so many troops to the Eastern front then the British/Americans/French etc probably would have been crushed with in days at Normandy. The Russians are the real heroes of WW2 but because of the Communism and cold war that came afterwards Western history doesn't allow us to say this. The Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk were probably the two biggest turning points of WW2 and after that is was one way traffic for a vicious Russian war machine. They were the first into Berlin and it was they who ended the war.

Answer 4

I don’t disagree with the fact, just the phrasing of the statement.

The fact is that the Allies would not have one the war without American support. But it’s not as if they came in to do the Britts a favour and they owe them one.

The Nazis were keen to make peace with Britain and regularly offered a truce. But Britain didn’t want a pact with a fascist dictator and so fought on, despite huge odds against them and the inevitable loss of life and wealth. The Americans should claim that they too came into the war with the rest of the Allies in the name of justice, humanity and, frankly, common decency. Not ‘to save Britain.’

Second (and this is to CB especially), the financial support from the US that kept the Allies going was no charitable act either. The interest rates on the loans were extortionate and when the money was demanded back after the war it crippled Britain and the other allies. The britts were forced to sell all their science and eventually give up their hold on the world currency and let the dollar become the leading currency. The US are the super power today partly from holding the Allies randsome through the loans they gave and the boom of industry from selling weapons.

Sorry for the long winded answer. I’ll cut it there, but check this out. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1854211,00.html

The Brits had 3000 agents in the US spreading pro-war propaganda to get them to join the war. This proves the Brittish government knew they needed the US, with such a heavy investment. Reflects badly on the US AND the UK though…probably why it’s rarely reported.

Answer 5

If anyone can claim major contribution to the destruction of the Hitler war machine and his regime - it is the Russians. They stopped Hitler from marching into Asia while the US were more or less a spectator, making profits from boosting their military sector. They did not take part in the war, until the danger for Stalinist Russia to overrun the whole of Europe was a real treat. Look at the map - with all my due respect, the allied forces only had to cross France to get to Germany, and the Russian army alone had crossed two thirds of Europe. They got in Berlin first and claimed the victory over Hitler on 9 May - this day is now officially celebrated as the Day of Europe, not D-day.
Again, winning over Hitler was a team effort, Britain having a very honourable contribution in view of the country's size, but let's be fair to who did what, otherwise we can all agree that Clint Eastwood played the most vital part.

Answer 6

It's true that Britain resisted invasion by the nazis but more significant than any american contribution to the war in Europe was the ability of the Russians to sustain huge losses and still
have the strength to push the germans out of all the occupied eastern territories without any allies fighting alongside them.
Without them inflicting huge damage on the german army on the eastern front, D-Day would have been a failure.
The turning point of the war was Stalingrad.

Answer 7

One has to realize that World War II in Europe didn't start when the Nazis invaded Poland. It started two days later when Britain and France declared war on Germany. And, as stated on a previous post, it was Lend-Lease that saved the Brits after France , as expected, capitulated. And the so-called "Battle of Britain" was "won" by the British only because the Germans changed their strategy and tactics, and therefore "lost" it. After a week or two more of destroying planes and airfields, the RAF would have been doomed, and the Isles wide open for an invasion. Most historians agree that the Wermacht would have smashed the British Army as it existed at that time.

So, given the breathing room they so desperately needed, a benevolent FDR decided to load the British up with much-needed equipment, made in the USA, at the expense of the American armed forces. And,after December 7, 1941, as tens of thousands of US soldiers landed in Britain, any thought of a German invasion was shelved.

Of course, having all that equipment did the British no good, as both Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Alan Brooke were basically afraid to take on the Germans. They preferred their 'peripheral" strategy, i.e. pinprick attacks on the edge of the enemies perimeters. It wasn't until the Americans got involved with their superior manpower and materiel that the British would even think of direct action against the Wermacht.

Answer 8

Some ppl on here seem to confuse The Battle of Britain as actually WW2.For the above we were on our own and won air superiority over the German Airforce.But after the Americans helped us with materials under the Lease Lend agreement.I doubt we could have won long term without their help.Bless em all,We will remember them.

Answer 9

If the turning point was 1940, how come the war was still going in 1945 ? It was a 'team' effort to defeat Germany & Japan but maybe some Americans believe that because so many Americans died in Europe.

Answer 10

There is no doubt that America did help us in WW2 as did Canada, Australia, Poland, the French resistance and many many others. BUT. Even if the USA had not joined in, we would have won eventually and that is because, in reality we did not win the war, Germany lost it by going after the Russians.

If you look at the casualty figures, the Russians and the Germans lost far far more lives than the rest of us put together,

Hitler got desparate and bit off more than he could chew, just like Bush is doing today.

I am grateful for the US help during that war, and for the MASSIVE Russian sacrifice of WW2, and the Russian sacrifice was far far greater than the Amrican one.