Do you find it offensive when Americans claim: "they won WWII"?

Question

you know:
"If it wasn't for us you'd be speaking German right now" kind of comments..

How do you think the war would have played out if it were JUST the US and Nazi Germany going toe-to-toe in '39??

Answer 1

It's significant that I never heard similar remarks from Americans I met here in Europe. Nor from the people I met in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Minneapolis in 1982. Nor on the old Internet. But the moment I logged in to local BBS message boards in the Midwest, Bingo! And later on when AOL opened its doors to Usenet, the same phenomenon.

And I always told them this :

"My parents, who live in the southern part of Belgium, never saw an American GI in 1944. British troops, yes. Canadian troops, yes. Polish troops, yes. And many, many escaped Russian POW's who had joined the Belgian resistance."

"Now, if I were a narrow-mined, ignorant man, I could conclude that WW II was won by Brits, Canadians, Poles and Russians. But I'm not narrow-minded and I can't be ignorant even if I tried to. I know my history, I know about the regional distribution of Allied troops during the Liberation of Europe. Bastogne is only a few miles away from where I grew up, and I visited the Mardasson Memorial several times. And I know the US Army cemeteries of WW I. But does that mean I have to forget about the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, the Siege of Leningrad, or the Liberation of Kharkov? Or any of the battles before December 1941? Grow up and LEARN SOME HISTORY!"

Answer 2

Don't find it too offensive - I was two generations from being born at the time after all. Besides modern English owes a lot to the German language in general. I doubt that anyone would dispute that the US turned the tide. Due to the US' size manpower and firepower-wise I think that there is some truth to it. I also am not totally unbiased as my Grandfather fought in the European theatre during the war.

It's ridiculous to state 39 as the year to fight - WW2 was very much a "European War" for the US at that point - we did not yet have the army and navy up to wartime levels as we were not under a threat of any kind. There would have been no reason for either country to attack the other. Germany was already geared up for war at that point. And regardless, either nation would need a staging point as neither could have reached the other due to distance. Germany had no real navy to speak of except for U boats. Nowhere near the same number of ships in total. If the US had not been also fighting Japan at the same time, as was the case in the actual WW2, the number of US troops available for combat would double and with the US aircraft carriers also available to fight Germany, the bombings would be quite something.
It would have turned out the same - The US had more people, more natural resources. Bombing Germany would be simple compared to bombing the major cities of the USA. We are simply too spread out. Steel was not a problem for us, or oil or coal etc....These things were scarce in Germany. Germany lost an entire generation of its male population, while the US had recruits to spare that were never called up. That and the fact that Hitler ignored his military advisors, while FDR having grown up in a family with strong ties to the military and the navy in particular was a good wartime leader.

US would have won, and regardless of the current political situation, I think that Europe does owe the US some gratitude for the Marshall plan which helped to rebuild much of Europe afterwards. What would Europe be like today if left to flounder after the war? The US was not alone by any means, everyone did their part. Just because people now see the US as a "big brother" or bully country does not discount our past deeds. I think the "speaking German" talk is similar to the whole "Americans got into the war late talk". It wasn't our war. Let it lie.It's done.

And Kobaincito, the US did not "attack" a weaker country in WW2, it was attacked in peacetime and had the bulk of its navy destroyed. Pearl Harbor - you might want to look it up. Germany and Japan were the strong warmonger countries attacking others. Crack a book every now and then.

Answer 3

No, the United States did not win WWII, it was the ALLIES - USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the many other smaller countries that assisted in the battle against Nazi tyrrany!

Please study HISTORY and not propaganda before asking such innane questions!

I think if the war had simply been the USA vrs Nazi Germany without any other nation coming into play, the USA would have won because of the population differences between the two countries. Also a population under the boot of a tyrranical rulers would not fight for something keeping them down. Eventualy the Germans would have realized they were the ones brainwashed and deceived by Hitler. Why else was there an active underground in all the countries under Hitler's evil, cruel, and beastly boot?

Your question sounds like it comes from some Holocaust denial mindset.

Answer 4

Let's face it, the Allies were not doing well when the US entered the war. There's no doubt, the US contribution to the war was huge. Not just military action directly, but with the huge amount of resources they provided to their allies. I have no doubts that their entry changed the balance of power and allowed an Allied victory. It's possible that the Allies could have eventually won, but I doubt it. The best would likely have been a stalemate and a treaty.

As to your hypothetical US vs. Germany idea, there's so many things that would have to change for that to be possible it's hard to really judge it. There's no way they could have been exclusive antagonists as far apart as they are. And if you move all the countries around to make them neighbors you've changed everything. But here's my thought on it. Germany would have attacked, made huge gains and conquered large portions of the US. Eventually the attack would have stalled as the US learned to defend themselves, and the German forces were stretched to the limit. A long period of back and forth fighting would have taken place before one side or the other won. Who won would depend on several things. If Hitler was still in charge, I think the Germans would have lost because of his increased instability and constantly changing priorities. Also, if the German attack was a surprise attack, then the US people would have been just as riled as they were against Japan and would have fought tooth and nail for their survival. Without that motivation it's doubtful the US could have mobilized a sufficient army and production capacity in time.

Answer 5

All right to answer the question if Germany and US went toe to toe in 1939, I think the US probably would have won. First off you have an ocean, which means you have to have a navy. The US already had one of the most powerful navies afloat, the other two being Japan and Britain. That means that the US can dictate where the fighting is going to be better than Germany.
Resources, advantage USA
Population, advantage USA
industrial capacity- advantage USA
lunatics: advantage Germany.
I think I'd take the USA over Germany.

The influx of fresh manpower, plus the industrial might that the USA brought helped the Allies win the war against Germany, while the USA while also fighting Japan at the same time.

Most other Allied nations generally fought in one or the other theater. Some like Britain tried both, but in the Pacific they were defeated quickly and pushed out. They didn't have a large presence until late 1944/early 1945 and by then their forces were dwarfed by US forces in the Pacific.

I think without the US that Europe, except for Britain might have been under Russian control, or German.

I think many Americans do walk with a swagger when talking about WW2, that's because they backed up their words with action, they did help out tremendously. If you want to be offended, it’s probably because there is a grain of truth in it.

Answer 6

The British and the French lost the battle of France to the Nazis, and the British forces were evacuated at Dunkirk on May 10, 1940. The victorious and powerful Nazi Army held a dagger at Englands throat, and OPERATION SEALION was the proposed and plausible invasion of England. It was only at the descretion of Adolf Hitler that Operation Sealion was cancelled and nothing else.

England was not doing too well at the onset of WWII and is doubtful if she would have persevered without U.S. intervention.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill sought desperately for U.S. intervention or else Nazi Germany would reign victorious over all of western Europe. The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941 and Hitler's declaration of war against the U.S. on December 12th broke the policy of U.S. isolationism and brought the industrial might of the USA against the Axis powers.

So it is kinda true that WWII was won by the United States, even though the Allies fought valiantly much earlier, but without US intervention of personnel and material aid, England, Australia, New Zealand, would all have been captured and have endured a nasty occupation.

Answer 7

If the USA hadn't entered the war there's still a fair chance that Germany would have lost anyway. Their invasion of Western Europe stopped at the English Channel and they took on the Soviet Union, which was a huge strategic error because although the USSR was technologically inferior, it was too vast in natural resources, space, and manpower for Germany to defeat alone.
Your question is divisive, and there are too many people who get their history from movies who assume that the USA won it alone.
Germany's defeat was assured because it found itself fighting on two fronts - never forget the masses of Russians who died.

Answer 8

Because most white people don't want to seem "boring" or as a plain old white person, I guarantee you that none of the white people who claim to have Native American blood can show proof of it, you can only truly claim to be Native American if a tribe recognizes you as one, they think claiming to have Native American ancestry makes them "cool" or "special" I currently live in New Mexico so there are a lot of real Native Americans over here and they absolutely hate it when white people claim Native American blood and I can see why

Answer 9

A very valid point, but can you realistically claim that America was not a winner in that war?

Those comments (however true) are juvenile and the result of people who learn history more from films than from books.

If it weren't for the Allied Powers, we'd all be speaking German right now, and there's be no good rye bread or standup comedy on earth.

Answer 10

The United States didnt enter the second world war until 1941, my Great Grandfathers and two of my Great Uncles had already been killed by then. I think that America would never have entered the second world war if it was just the US vs. Germany there was too much public opinion against doing so, this is supported when you consider the number of Americans who joined the second world war to fight on the side of Germany.
...and yes I do find it offensive.