The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit)
They say history is written by the winners, but the truth is even stranger than that. In reality history is often written by popular opinion, or wishful thinking, or crass politics.
That's why so much of what we hear about an event like World War II--whether from textbooks, movies or something you overheard a smart-sounding guy say--is just plain bullshit.
#5.
America Won the War Single-Handedly
Claimed By:
Hollywood, WWII-shooters, Cold War politics and chauvinists.
Sixty years of World War II movies, and a decade of WWII video games, have made one thing clear: If it wasn't for America, you'd all be speaking German right now, baby! U-S-A! U-S-A!
How America fights a two-front war.
Why it's Bullshit:
Because it's like thinking that while many X-Men contributed in their own special way, defeating Magneto really came down to Iceman.
Cool party!
There are two radically different histories of WW II, the one that was actually fought, and the one where the US kicked everyone's assess. Guess which one Cold War-era classrooms were allowed to teach? Here's a hint: It's the same one Hollywood chose to film.
World War II wasn't just a clever name. It was a global conflict that included epic acts of heroism by non-Americans like the storming of Madagascar, the Battle of Westerplatte, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Kursk, the epically badass Kokoda Track, the pilots of the Polish Underground State, the details of El Alamein or the HMS Bulldog. Of course, Americans never hear about any of those unless, as in the case of the classic submarine film U 571, the characters are just straight up switched to Americans. To quote George S. Patton: "Americans love a winner," which you know because you saw Patton, the film that portrayed Field Marshal Bernard "Rommel-killer" Montgomery like a buffoon simply because he was British.
Cheerio, guv'na!
However, there is one Zangief-sized elephant in the room that America loved to leave out of conversation until the end of the Cold War: the Soviet Union. The "Great Patriotic War" as they called it was the single largest military operation in history, and home to perhaps the biggest turning-point of the war: the Battle of Stalingrad.
Understand, the Russia versus Germany part of the war wasn't just a little more important than the part the USA was involved in. It was "four times the scale" of the whole Western front, larger than all other phases of the war put together. The Soviet military suffered eight million soldiers dead, more than 20 freaking times the number of U.S. casualties.
Suck it up, Damon.
Sounds pretty brutal for a John Wayne movie? Try figuring in another 13.7 million dead civilians.
It's tragic how many kids in the West never heard these stories growing up. One platoon leader in the Red Army named Yakov Pavlov personally rigged a Stalingrad apartment building with enough landmines, rifles and mortars to hold off half the Nazi army. The building was under fire day and night and even had some civilians in the basement, but the fortress never fell. Pavlov himself picked off one dozen tanks from the beast.
Our history books should not have been denied such awesomeness.
#4.
Winston Churchill Was the Universally Beloved Leader of the Good Guys
Claimed By:
Biographers, [English] historians, skewed opinion polls and people who have never heard of British Raj
Why it's Bullshit:
Churchill was great at giving wartimes speeches, and no doubt was an effective cheerleader for England while the Nazis were bombing the shit out of London. But his popularity didn't extend very far beyond a psychological concept called the "rally round the flag" effect, which significantly reduces criticisms of a character/government post-crisis. Remember when George W. Bush's approval ratings shot past 80 percent after 9/11?
It didn't last, and Churchill immediately was booted from office just months after Germany surrendered. Why?
Churchill suffered from an insatiable urge similar to "bloodlust" in Warcaft to keep fighting WWII for as long as he felt like it. Since this meant millions of men would be dying for his ego, it made him quite unpopular within the British military. Churchill's craziest scheme: A preemptive invasion of Russia on July 1, 1945 with the help of re-armed German forces. Yes, he wanted to start World War III before we had even started shoveling the rubble of WWII. It was his aptly-named Operation Unthinkable, and even his closest supporters thought it was batshit insane.
As for Churchill the Prime Minister, Brits began experiencing a bit of an "oh shit" feeling when it hit them that they might be stuck with the nutcase in peacetime. Winnie didn't make this anxiety any easier for himself, calling his Labour opponents "Gestapo" even though they served key posts in his war cabinet. Thus Britons promptly responded in 1945 by kicking his enormous ass out of office in one of the most spectacular electoral defeats in history.
Nevertheless, Churchill did enjoy high approval ratings from his people... that is, if you ignore the 400 million inhabitants of British Raj, present-day Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and, the big one, India. By Churchill's own standards, these people were part of the British Empire (including all those poor villagers in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), yet he was a fierce opponent to any kind of Indian autonomy.
The country was forced into World War II, and its leaders arrested if they protested. Churchill even took a hard-line against Mohandas Gandhi, going so far as to advocate" letting Gandhi starve to death" during his hunger strikes.
Fuck you, Gandhi!
#3.
If The Nazis Had Just _________, Germany Would Have Won The War
Claimed By:
Just about everybody.
The idea is that Nazi Germany was a military juggernaut for a brief period in the 40s, and that the entire planet would have collapsed if it wasn't for one or two minor blunders.
If only he remembered to put oxygen in that helmet...
Why it's Bullshit:
To say that Hitler sleeping late decided the war ignores the fact that he needed supernatural good luck to do as well as he did in the first place. For instance, it was blind luck that he avoided assassination in 1938, before he could even get his war plans off the ground. And it's a pretty safe bet he never would have gotten very far if his father hadn't changed his name from the far less catchy Schickelgruber.
But the major reason Hitler was never this close to making your grandparents goose step through Time Square: The Soviet Union. Today, it's widely believed that Hitler, or really anyone's, chances of winning a war against the Soviet Union were on par with a snowball in a cage match with a chainsaw wielding Mike Tyson in hell.
What 11 time-zones of Joseph Stalin looks like.
Yes, Hitler plowed through Europe and had the UK on the ropes, and could have done more. It didn't matter. Stalin was waiting on the other side, and Hitler was never going to win that war. It was just a matter of how much of Europe he would control at the moment Stalin eventually crushed him.
But had it been through a nuclear bombardment of Berlin or through a continued war of attrition, Joseph Stalin was going to be in the winner's corner of WWII, no matter what.
Behind all those trucks is a battalion of motorcycles to ramp them.
If all of this makes it sound like we think Hitler was kind of an idiot, well, that brings us to our next myth...
i'd like to say some thing but before i do i want to say i am not a Nazi supporter now that that's out of the way the idea that hitler was not a smart man because he failed to get into art school is the stupidest thing i have ever heard the french school of art he applied to is the same one Albert Einstein failed to get into so either the writer of this article needs to get his facts straight or einstein was a dumb
ReplyThe man was good at convincing people to follow his insanity and ... that's about it. I wouldn't call it dumb, but I'm sure there's an uncomplimentary word for it that I'm not aware of. (The Germans probably have a perfectly appropriate word that's full of g's and sch's.)
Wait... Some people thought that the Americans won the war single-handedly?!
ReplyWHO?
America
The folks who didn't pay attention in history class and learned everything they know about WWII from Hollywood blockbusters and video games.
I was born in Russia too, and my grandfather also fought in WW2. In fact, 90% of my family was executed in the concentration camps by Hitler. I’d have to agree with the original author of this article that to say that “militarily” it was the US who won WW2 is kind of a joke. While it is true that the US funded some of the weaponry and supplies for the war, let’s be real, the US lost 200,000 people to Germans, whereas the USSR lost a whopping 27,000,000! That’s 27 MILLION! Last time I checked it is he who ACTUALLY FIGHTS the war actually FIGHTS the war.
ReplyIs it any wonder the US went on to be so economically successful after the war compared to USSR who was completely DESTROYED in manpower, resources, and infrastructure? Of course the US prospered, they had no casualties since they didn’t FIGHT the actual war. And how’s our economy doing now? I bet few actually understand that Russia is indirectly but probably methodically responsible for the mess we’re in today. Let’s examine this further.
Americans are very short sighted in their war tactics, because they are usually the most powerful financially and militarily, but other enemies, like Russia and our Middle Eastern nemesis are very patient, and they fight their wars, not in 5 or 10 years, but in 50 and 100. ( Oh and don’t forget Japan, we haven’t heard the last from them, we would be fools to think Japan isn’t holding one huge grudge against the US for the atom bomb.)
But I digress, so while we’re here debunking myths, lets debunk another one – that the US ALSO won the cold war. The consensus is that the US bankrupted the USSR as a result of the cold war, true, but as a result of Russia falling upon such tough times, all of their technology, engineering manpower, and intellectual property was sold to the Middle East (how else do you think any of them were able to get nuclear weapons?) America didn’t think ahead of what would happen to all of Russia’s “military acumen” if Russia wasn’t fighting the US – and that was a BIG mistake. And guess what? Now the US is in FAR worse position fighting the current “war on terror” than they were fighting Russians, at least, one could reason with the Russians. NOW Americans lost our most important “commodity” our freedom as a result of all the “security” we have all around us to prevent terror attacks. For terrorists don’t engage in the “proper” rules of war.
So, as long as the world goes on, it is difficult to say who actually won what, since most conflicts are fought over hundreds of years, and as long as the sun comes up every day, we don’t really know who really won. Regardless, it breaks my heart to say that America is just now what she used to be, but I pray one day she will shine again.
What the f**k are you talking about? Wars are over when one side loses. The USSR doesn't exist anymore so the Cold War between the US and USSR is over and the US won, you can't be fighting a war against an enemy that doesn't exist.
great article...a couple things...hitler did not invade britain because he ultimately wanted the british as allies because he saw them as coming from the same germanic ancestors and actually wanted to start a germanic empire with the help of the british...hitlers ultimate goal was to rid europe of the slavic people (eastern europeans) not for world domination...just as japan wanted an "asian" asia controlled by themselves...unfortunately the japanese massacred millions of chinese, philippinos and other southeast asians (mostly overlooked as well) so their influence and conquest wasnt very welcome...one more thing about the relationships between the world leaders at them time...many leaders, including churchill and fdr, saw hitler as a savior for germany and actually thought he was great for their recovery while establishing a strong nation in west/central europe to oppose the soviets...ironically the only person that didnt like hitler upon first meeting him was mussolini...he was eventually driven into hitlers arms because he wanted to claim land for italy he felt they were cheated out of by the treaty of versailles...england, france and the u.s.a. snatched up way more land to increase their imperialism in africa and asia after wwi, but italy felt they did not receive their fair share...
ReplyIs it bad that by now I'm not surprised that the first page of comments I'm seeing are "But America DID win the war DX"
ReplyWhat about the fact that Manila (the Philippine Capital) was the second most destroyed city after the war?
ReplyAnd that after the war, instead of granting the Philippines huge reparations for reconstruction, the United States gave Japan the money to be their bitch?
Oh, and what about the fact that the reason Japan was never severely reprimanded was because, inter alia, the United States made a deal with them, which included, but not limited to, their research notes (including their research on germ warfare) and their military techs and research notes (remember the Zero?)
Oh yeah... Japan stole from the countries they conquered and they got paid doing it.
What a beautiful planet we live in!
The Phillipines was American territory at the end of WW2. Reprimanding an entire country for losing a war is how Hitler came to power, starting WW2. The Allies didn't make that mistake again. They did put some of the Japanese leaders for war crimes, so its not like it was a free pass.
I just went through a World History class, and while America did massively contribute to the war efforts, we definitely did not single handedly win it. The war turned in our favor when we entered it because we had fresh troops. It had less to do with our skill and awesomeness than the fact that we had a huge supply of eager, young fighters who weren't sick of WWII by now.
ReplyAlthough I still think America's pretty cool.
Are you kidding me? "... America did massively contribute to the war efforts..." 200,000 Americans died fighting Germany while 27,000,000 Russians died ... THAT's 27 MILLION Russians. And while America did contribute financially, last time I checked he who actually FIGHTS the war, FIGHTS the war. The US contributed 0.07% of manpower compared to Russians. Yes, that's less than 1%.
... People believe these?
ReplyWell, in the Pacific theater America did carry a large portion of the war, but not all of it and they were definitely just another supporter in the Europe theater.
it's called the chinese theatre it went on for almost 8 years before America joined the pacific war
The part where Hitler had a 'silly accent' is probably a bs myth within the bs myth of him having been an evil genius - one compliments the other, or might even explain why he sounds so goddamn angry at every syllable that has dared to leave his mouth.
ReplyMy reasoning for this is that back in the day, live broadcasting technology wasn't as advanced, let alone record what you say into a microphone at the same time. I know, I know, pointing out the obvious here, but most people seem to forget this: if you're standing in front of a huge crowd at a political rally, you actually want them to understand what you're saying. This means speaking a certain, overexaggerated, different way from the way you'd talk to your buddies at a bar.
So, this 'silly accent' was how you were supposed to talk into a goddamned microphone back at the time so your message was clear and comprehensible even to those people aaaalll the way in the back. I base this on the sole fact that most of Hitler's speech that is widely popular is when he gives political speeches, bellowing into the microphone. From experience, Upper Austrian people, even hundred years ago, just don't like sound like that (and that's enough of a vague argument to raise against your wiki 'reference').
There was nothing special about Hitler's speeches, he spoke with the same cadence and inflection as every other crazed dictator be it Mao, Stalin, etc.... watch videos of their speeches and you'll see what I mean.
Also, if FDR had known about Pearl Harbour and allowed it to happen so he could wage the war he wanted, what would be the point in letting it happen? He could've thwarted it said "look everyone, Japan was trying to f**k us over and kill thousands of US servicemen, let's get 'em". Sure it wouldn't have got the same unanimous nationwide support, but it definitely would have been considered an act of war and Congress would certainly have granted his declaration of war. Its very similar to the bullshit logic that surrounds the whole 'Bush let 9/11 happen' thing. If he prevented it, he would have been a hero, and still had more than enough reason to declare war on Japan/Iraq
Replythe history channel, where the truth is history
ReplyOne thing a lot of people forget about American involvement in World War 2 is that Stalin and Churchill actually asked the US to open the second front in Europe. If they didn't, the US would've just kept concentrating on Japan while funding the war for their allies.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesThat's balls, once the US was in the war Congress voted that Germany was the main threat, with Japan a secondary factor. Hence the first fighting that US troops did in the war was in Africa against Rommell
The first action was against Japan, and Nazi Germany declared war on the US before the US declared war on Nazi Germany.
the US was already at war with Germany by 1940, we were sending US ships out to guard British merchant ships as well as selling weapons to Britain
You forgot to mention the #1 myth about WW II: six million Jews died in the Holocaust. Kinda crazy considering there weren't 6 million Jews in Europe at the time.
Reply Hide All See All 7 RepliesThere were over 3 million just in Poland, doofus, and the Nazis corralled the majority of them. I'm sure they didn't finish the job to your satisfaction, but that's no reason to dis their effort.
Sorry ScottSimmons, it's true, despite what your little history books tell you. 300,000 Jews dead, not 6,000,000. Does it not make you wonder why there are so many movies and concentration on this supposed '6,000,000 poor little Jews persecuted for no reason', when 26,000,000 Russians died in WW2, the majority of which were civilians themselves? The Jewish Holocaust is the blackest lie in history, used to justify the creation of the state of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, which is now a racist apartheid state and has been ever since its inception. It's odd when people are arrested when they question the events of the 'holocaust': what's to hide? Oh that's right, 95% less died than claimed - the holocaust as we are told it today is an invention and a myth, nothing more.
Over 3 million Jews in Poland circa 1939, by 1945 around 95% of them were wiped out. Around 5-8 million Jewish people in the Soviet Union, not to mention the heavy Jew population in Romania, Bulgaria, etc as well as Germany itself and a small minority of Jews in France. How unfounded and ridiculous
Nirvana837, you are just a brainwashed/dead believer of bullshit. 300,000 Jews died? Why aren't you in a wheelchair? "The Jewish Holocaust is the blackest lie in history, used to justify the creation of the state of a Jewish homeland in Palestine". Jesus Christ I hope you don't reproduce
YOu do realize that to be a myths something has to be false. That some paranoid bigot thinks it's not true doesn't qualify. One basic truth that's gone on since long before WWII and remains true today though. Anti semitism is the one of the oldest, most wide spread and most socially acceptable forms of intolerance.
I don't know where you get your facts, but there were at least 3 MILLION Jews JUST in the Soviet Union at that time - and these were leftovers since most of the Jews fled the USSR to neighboring Slavic counties to avoid persecution. In fact, Germans would HUNT Jews when they occupied Russia, they weren't interested in capturing the civilian Russians themselves, only the Jewish Russians ... sounds like you know nothing about what you speak.
I'd like to see a source for both your claims, DthCltch and Nirvana837. Otherwise, I'm calling bullshit based on weight of evidence.
I didn't know Hitler's dad changed their family name. I'm guessing the whole family probably changed their last name because of Hitler. Now that I think about it, this means that there are probably plenty more people out there related to Hitler with a different name.Too bad we'll probably never know who's related to him.
ReplyActually his family is pretty well documented, there were quite a few that lived in the US at the onset of WW2.
And just because they were related to him doesn't make them bad people. That's like saying all americans are racist because some used to own slaves.
So many armchair warriors - so few battles to fight.
Reply(You must all be very disapointed)
I am Russian, my parents, my grandparents lived in the USSR and all my great-grandfather fought in this terrible war. And so I ask you to concern with understanding to my opinion, because, maybe, we even perceive the same facts differently. And I sorry for my grammar mistakes, of course))
Reply Hide All See All 6 RepliesWorld War II was preceded by the Treaty of Versailles. The conditions of it were very heavy for the Germans and Ferdinand Foch prophetically said: "This is not peace, it is an armistice for 20 years". So in Germany grew the idea of revanchism, and this allowed Hitler to gain the sympathy of the population and come to power. Hitler occupied Austria in 1938 and Britain with France agreed with it. In 1938 the UK and France at the Munich agreement allowed to get Sudetenland, where later in the war factories, of which there are many, was made half the German tanks. I heard about politic of "appeasing", but it is bullshit. England never agreed voluntarily to such political concessions. It was a royal gift to Hitler, but Britain and France wanted that Hitler used this gift against Russia. Once again it proves that people are sent to the USSR from England and France to sign an agreement to maintain peace in Europe in general have no authority for his signature. So the security of Russia began to waver and 23 august 1939 was concluded the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Hitler started war with Britain and France. His plan was to meet with Japanese allies in the region of India. All the preparations were ready, Turkey was the union state, the Arab countries would have perceived the Germans as liberators. The road to India was open. After India would be occupied by Germany and Japan, Great Britain would agree to any concessions. Then it would be easily to defeat surrounded on all sides Russia. But Russia was almost ready to attack Germany. This explains the concentration of aircraft on the border of the USSR. Germany's position was vulnerable, so it was decided to withdraw its troops from northern Africa. The decision to attack Russia was spontaneous, the German army was smaller than the Soviet army, and German soldiers were dressed for the warm climate of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and India, and not for our cold winters. Hitler had a chance to win a war against Russia, but it was minimal.
Soviet Union received a loan of U.S. munitions, equipment and food(Lend Lease). If I am not mistaken, it is our duty in 2003 was 100 million dollars(from 670 million), I do not know we had paid today or not)
Japan was defeated by the United States, the Soviet Union defeated Germany. But the real winner in this war was the United States. Britain and France weakened. Soviet Union got a lot, but in a very high price - 26 million dead. In the United States after the war has focused two thirds of the world's gold reserves, and half of the global industry. Even in Soviet times, admitted that the U.S. fought smarter than everyone else.
Sorry again for grammatical mistakes)
That was an excellent reply sir.
are you sure that you belong on the internet?
You seem far too intelligent to be here
seriously
Most certainly was the best reply here, thank you. I joined just to thank you for speaking the truth.
For the record, I didn't realize there were any grammar issues until you apologized for it. The internet would be a Utopia if this is what could be considered as "bad grammar". Bang-up job.
Thank you for such high estimate) I visited this site to get to know your views on various historical events. It is always interesting and useful. For example, the frequent hostility between Russian and Poles / Romanians / Hungarians and other nations is due to one-sided perception of history. Many residents of eastern Europe consider Russian occupiers, at the same time, the Russian believe that they are liberators from fascism, and why these ideas are met with a big misunderstanding. In fact, the truth is always somewhere in the middle)
I was born in Russia too, and my grandfather also fought in WW2. In fact, 90% of my family was executed in the concentration camps by Hitler. I’d have to agree with the original author of this article that to say that “militarily” it was the US who won WW2 is kind of a joke. While it is true that the US funded some of the weaponry and supplies for the war, let’s be real, the US lost 200,000 people to Germans, whereas the USSR lost a whopping 27,000,000! That’s 27 MILLION! Last time I checked it is he who ACTUALLY FIGHTS the war actually FIGHTS the war.
Is it any wonder the US went on to be so economically successful after the war compared to USSR who was completely DESTROYED in manpower, resources, and infrastructure? Of course the US prospered, they had no casualties since they didn’t FIGHT the actual war. And how’s our economy doing now? I bet few actually understand that Russia is indirectly but probably methodically responsible for the mess we’re in today. Let’s examine this further.
Americans are very short sighted in their war tactics, because they are usually the most powerful financially and militarily, but other enemies, like Russia and our Middle Eastern nemesis are very patient, and they fight their wars, not in 5 or 10 years, but in 50 and 100. ( Oh and don’t forget Japan, we haven’t heard the last from them, we would be fools to think Japan isn’t holding one huge grudge against the US for the atom bomb.)
But I digress, so while we’re here debunking myths, lets debunk another one – that the US ALSO won the cold war. The consensus is that the US bankrupted the USSR as a result of the cold war, true, but as a result of Russia falling upon such tough times, all of their technology, engineering manpower, and intellectual property was sold to the Middle East (how else do you think any of them were able to get nuclear weapons?) America didn’t think ahead of what would happen to all of Russia’s “military acumen” if Russia wasn’t fighting the US – and that was a BIG mistake. And guess what? Now the US is in FAR worse position fighting the current “war on terror” than they were fighting Russians, at least, one could reason with the Russians. NOW Americans lost our most important “commodity” our freedom as a result of all the “security” we have all around us to prevent terror attacks. For terrorists don’t engage in the “proper” rules of war.
So, as long as the world goes on, it is difficult to say who actually won what, since most conflicts are fought over hundreds of years, and as long as the sun comes up every day, we don’t really know who really won. Regardless, it breaks my heart to say that America is just now what she used to be, but I pray one day she will shine again.
indeed, its not a matter of what hitler didn't do, but rather a matter of what he did do, such as saying"fuck it, lets make the same screw up napoleon did and march through the russian winter, while forbidding the soldiers from bringing heavy coats"
ReplyEh maybe Hitler gets TOO much credit but you are undoubtedly diminishing far TOO much. Hitler was pretty damn genius at many things, namely getting people to follow him and getting others to just kind of ignore it (the latter had a lot to do with people not wanting to f**k with Germany - they would have let him do his thing had he not been hell bent on trying to take over the world). Hitler's paintings actually aren't bad either, so the art school he was applying for must've been high class shit.
ReplyI do agree that hitler was a great public speaker who did convince a lot of people to join his cause, but that doesn't mean he was a good leader, or a genius by any standard. He was charismatic and was a great icon for the nazis, but he couldn't command worth shit. I also agree that his paintings are actually ok. Not bad at all.
Hitler wasn't a genius, he was an opportunist.... at the time he came to power, Germany was in a desperate dire situation, people were suffering and were ready to follow anyone who would promise them something better, (kind of like where America has been lately.) Hitler followed the playbook of Marxism, it wasn't like he was the one who thought up of this, he was simply following in Lenin's footsteps. The rise of people like Hitler and Lenin is well documented in a little book called "Animal Farm." It's not really rocket science. It's just good timing.
Mike Tyson wielding a chainsaw? Or a chainsaw wielding Mike Tyson? I like to think the latter, way better.
ReplyHitler actually greenlighted von Mansteins plan for invading France which had previously been laughed off by the OKH (Oberkommand das Heeres or as I will be referring to it from now on the High Command). While Hitler did pretty much f**k up Germanys war effort by meddling with every little aspect he did have some decent ideas. The problem was that the OKH was filled with gutless ass kissers who were so intent on pleasing Hitler it's actually quite disappointing. The few guys who could get something done were von Manstein, Guderian, Rommell and Kesselring. Modell was decent.
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesAlso there was the fact that Goehring as the minister of armaments was pretty s**t in his job. The production did not go up in the first three or so years of the war (which usually happens because you need more tanks, planes, weapons and ammunition). Also when Hitler asked if the Luftwaffe could support Stalingrad Goehring said yes, after being told that the whole idea was ridiculous by his staff. Had Goehring said no, Hitler might have pulled the Sixth Army out of Stalingrad. So the most elite army group the Germans had would have been saved.
About the Americans winning the war. You guys sure helped Russia. They had virtually no radios in their tanks or planes before you guys started handing them out. That and third of the wheat that was given to the Red Army came from you America. That and also a lot of airplanes. Which was great for Russia since Luftwaffe had destroyed theirs.
Overall you shouldn't have executed the German High Command. You should have handed them medals and thanked them for their help on the war effort.
Well said and very pleasant to read. Off the top of my head I'd add to your list of American contributions to Russia thousands of trucks and tanks (oh, the T-34 chasis was a design based off of the American Christie), and 9 million pairs of felt-lined boots. I think close to a third of Soviet aircraft at Kursk were American-built (the P-39 proved a surprisingly good tank buster)
While Americans are certainly prone to ignore or be unaware of the Russian sacrifice, the American economic contribution to the war effort is massively under-appreciated.
"WE" shouldn't have executed the German High Command?!? Need I remind you the the tribunal at Nuremberg was comprised of One American Justice, one British (The President of the council), one French and one Russian. It was the ALLIES who executed them, Russia included!
Let's not forget that what destroyed Hitler (just like Napoleon) in the end, was the Russian winter, not lack of air planes and radios.