Why do the yanks think they won both World Wars when they only came in at the end of both?

Answer 1

Well conventional wisdom suggests that we would have won the Great War (1914-1918) without them but the involvement of the USA in WWII was vital and absolutely necessary. What bugs many people, and Hollywood has much to answer for here, is that the Americans give the impression that they did it all themselves.

Examples:

D-Day there were more British and Canadian troops engaged in the D-Day landings than US;

The first major defeats inflicted on the Germans were the Battle of Britain (1940) and El Alamein (1942).

The greatest defeat inflicted on Japanese land forces was the Battle of Imphal / Kohima (1944)

There are others.

The Russians smashed the Germans at Stalingrad and Kursk, the greatest tank battle of WWII (1943)

I doubt the US could have beaten both the Germans and Japanese alone. But US involvment in both theatres was crucia. Of course the US won the war but not by any means alone.

Answer 2

You have a point that it was an Allied victory not just an American victory. However, many of the other participants in the forum rightly believe that by the United States joining the war in December of 1941 made the difference between victory and defeat in WWII. To be sure, the Russian casualties were much higher even if you factor in that totals were padded with deaths from the purges and famines. But that said, United States took care of the Japanesse in the Pacific and at the same time was able to create multiple fronts for the Germans to fight. This eventually led to their downfall.

If you look were Britian was at in late 1941 before the United States entered the war, the picture was not that rosy. True, the gallant fighter pilots did win the Battle for Britian in the skies. But, her armies were in a sorry state with a complete lack of materials and equipment after the collapse in France in 1940 and the escape at Dunkirk. So there is no way, you could say that you had Jerry against the ropes and right where you wanted him. At best, Churchill could have hoped for was a negotiated peace.

If you ever travel to America and I hope you do, you can see any every town, village, or city. There is memorial to war dead, where you can read the names of soldier, sailors, airmen and marines that I died in service to my country. The overwhelming majority died in World War II. I wonder about those boys who died alone or with some good souled comrade squeezing their hand in a godforsaken place like Omaha Beach, Guadacanal, or Anzio. They gave their last efforts to make the world a better place. Belittling them is in some ways offensive to any patriotic American.

Anyway, I assume that you may have criticisms and grievances against the United State. Some of them may be legitimate and some of them are probably not. But, your criticism of the United States role in WWII isn't warranted.

Sincerely,

Paul M. Raich

PS You forgot about the phony war. Not much happened between September 1939 and April 1940 outside the Germans invading Poland. So, you really should shorten Britian involvement window.

Answer 3

I have wondered this myself really, some Americans that say if it was'nt for them Europe would be all speakin German! I don't really think that one country in a world war should not really be able to claim to win the war as it really is a combined effort with different sides contributing to the war effort. If america was in the war from the beginning and say england came towards the end would it be claimed that England won the war?

As for WW2 if not for the freezing Russian weather and the sheer determination and size of the Russian army operation barbarossa would have been successful and the effects detrimental. As the Americans came in at the end, they were'nt war weary did not suffer air raids bar Pearl Harbour therefore i suppose from an american view that takes tjis into account they can claim to have saved our skins!

Answer 4

A better question would be why does France think they won both World Wars when they clearly surrendered to the Nazis at the beginning of World War II?

The USA fought through the majority of WWII and played a critical role in the ultimate victory. Before officially entering, the USA served as Great Britain's lifeline by supplying raw materials and military equipment during the Battle of Britain. Though the United States entered near the end of World War I most historians believe that they were instrumental in ending the war years sooner than would have been possible had they not entered.

Answer 5

Because we were the country that you came to to get the weapons to fight the wars.

WWI I will coincide that we didn't fight long in it. Yet, Historians agree that the American Army was the deciding element for the war. If Wilson had declared war on the Entente forces in 1917 by 1918 France and Britain would have had to surrender as they had no new troops to counter the American troops. That was the real reason that Germany Surrendered in 1918 they new they could no longer win. Point to the Americans and the Entente nations of France Great Britain and Italy.

WWII; That war lasted from 1939-1945 the United States fought in it from the end of 1941-1945 but was supplying Europe with weapons from Oct 1939-1945, American Aircraft faught in the Battle of Britain.

The United States was able to take many British Scientific Advancements and perfect them, Radar, Sonar, Penicillin. Plus this nation was able to send ,fully equipped, 4 Armies and 5 Air Forces to Europe 2 Stratigic 2 Tactical 1 Transport, 3 Armies and 3 Air Forces to the Pacific, 8 Marine Divisions 4 Marine Air wings, 85 Carrier Air Wings 35 Naval Patrol Squadrons and build over 4,000 Warships and Merchant Ships after Pearl Harbor. On top of this the US Navy Yards refitted 16 Royal Navy Vessels, and built 25 Escort Vessels and 16 Escort Carriers and Outfitted each ship for Great Britain. Also at the same time The United States rebuild the French and the Chinese Armies from scratch and resupplied the British Army. All at a time when Great Britan was brealing up units to reman established units after 1941 Britain built 1 Battleship 3 Carriers 5 Cruisers . The United States supplied 90% of the equipment used at D-Day and the Push trough Northern Europe.

The United States was ,as FDR called it, An Arsenal for Democracy. Brash and cocky we may be but the truth is that from 1939-1945 the US Took in British Refugees, Fought in the Battle of the Atlantic and really did save Great Britian's fat from the fire . That's how I see it.

Answer 6

Well, I think History is written by those who (think) they won. Let's face it, they've only been involved in wars which:
a) would have a financial (check how much we are all (Europe) STILL repaying about WW2 to the States) or petrol interest.
b) for testing military equipment or installing regimes that would allow news arms deals, consequently justifying the government's expenditure on the army.
Fact was that it was known that the States were pro-German until way later in the war (WWII).

Personally, I think we would have ended up speaking Russian, not German, in the end.

Answer 7

You know what? You're right.

We Yanks didn't do jack. We came in at the very end of the war when the Brits and the Russians had the Germans beat, and took all the credit. We didn't do anything. You guys did all the work.

Oh yeah, all of those battles in the Pacific? That was just the Brit troops from Burma, as well as the Aussies and Kiwis. Nothing there either. We just sat on our butts and only entered at the very end, when all of the real fighting was already over.

You rule, we suck. I get it now. Thanks for the update.

Answer 8

In reality,..., there are no winners in war; only losers. Even the "winners" are actually losers. Both sides in any conflict suffer losses. The question is not who won the most, but who lost the least.

The "winners" of WWII suffered staggering losses. Even the U.S., which did not have its own homeland ravaged by the war, suffered great losses. Besides the $360 billion price tag ($3,578 billion in today’s dollars), there were 292,131 Americans killed (not to mention the 115,185 "non-battle deaths"). There were also 670,846 Americans wounded. This, of course, does not take into account the emotional toll of shattered lives and marriages.

Yes, we "won" because we survived the war declared on us by Japan and Germany. Yes, we "won" because we saved the world from plummeting into a very dark and desperate era. Yes, we "won" because we saved over 100 million people from certain death and several hundred million people from oppression and torture. If Japan and Germany had not been defeated, the losses to America (and the rest of the world) would have been far more substantial. So, in comparison, we did "win."

http://www.biblehelp.org/war.htm

Answer 9

Sorry, buddy, but you're out of line here. The U.S. supported Great Britain at a time when no one else was around to lend a hand.

Don't forget the Marshall plan that rebuilt Europe after the war. If it hadn't have been for the latter, most of Europe would have struggled to regain an entry back into the 20th century. The only way they got the trains running in France after the last World War was importing a lot of American locomotives.

The truth is, no one really won either war. A whole generation of Europeans, a good deal of Canadians, Austrialians and Americans lost their lives.

You can play "what if" games but I think the facts remain that Britain was against a rock and a hard place and needed arms, men, supplies, food and hard currency to continue the struggle.

You have no idea how close Germany was to developing the atomic bomb and other super weapons that were in the works. The German patent office was raided by the Americans and it was discovered that Germany was far advanced in many aspects than either British or American.

Go to Google, type in V-7 German and go to the first site you find. You'll see what might have been and what may have been acquired by Western governments for their own programs.

The British government had seven planes on constant standby to take the key members of the government to Canada, if an invasion were to take place. Think about that.

Answer 10

Hollywood. That said if the Americans had not have joined the war, Europe would have been a majority communist continent. The Soviet Union would still have had the same successes and possibly even more without American intervention. Britain didn't win the war on her own because we couldn't without help, if it wasn't for either the Soviet Union or the US we would be in a different position now, we wouldn't be speaking German, but we be surrounded by the Federal States of Europe ruled from Berlin.