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I wouldn't say "only". But the industrial advantage that the US brought to the allies made an Allied victory almost inevitable - in hindsight, the only way the
by dgoldstein0 4mo ago
I wouldn't say "only". But the industrial advantage that the US brought to the allies made an Allied victory almost inevitable - in hindsight, the only way the Allies could've lost was if the situation looked so hopeless that the US chose to stop fighting - or never entered the war in the first place. Maybe if the Nazis had overrun Britain and either avoided engaging the USSR until they were ready to give it undivided attention, or somehow have conquered it, then maybe the US could've looked and said "we don't want to pick this fight" ... of course the moment Hitler declares war without actually being ready to invade the US, he's made a huge mistake.
Perhaps there's an alternative history where Germany was less incompetent with their production and had less stupid leadership. But even in those, as long as the US got into the war and the war continued until one side or the other was fully conquered - I think it would've been Nazi Germany being conquered. The US started at a huge disadvantage of not having much of a military, weapons or ammunition ready, but we got to ramp up production for a good ~4 years before going over to Europe to kick ass and ran circles around the Axis powers with our production.
- Paradigm2020 4mo agoAmerican weapons, Soviet blood. Both on the eastern front and the western front the soviets were responsible for the ultimate defeat of the Axis. Note: I'm not pro russia or pro America... Unlike the current team putin / Trump / Zelinsky / Taylor Swift and they can't do anything wrong we should always strive to discuss events > people.
- senderista 4mo agoI think the USSR would have won the war regardless of US involvement, but it might have taken a few more years.
- dgoldstein0 4mo agoMaybe. They had the strategic depth and political will. But that forgets that they had major amounts of supply and industrial expertise brought in from the US. With none of that, perhaps they would've lost Moscow and the rest of the East. That could've given the Nazis significant more supply - especially if they got their hands on Soviet oil in the Urals - would could've made them hard to kick out. We'll never know for sure.
- senderista 4mo agoWell, a lot of that US (and German!) industrial expertise was applied well before the war, in the 20s and 30s. It's certainly plausible that Moscow could have fallen if Hitler hadn't diverted Army Group Center to Kiev etc., which would have been a major political/logistical setback, but I still doubt it would have changed the ultimate outcome (especially if it had left the units of the Red Army intact that were encircled and destroyed in that diversion).