Poll: American?s disillusion with WW2

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Hey, come on. Can't this shitty country have at least ONE moment of glory?

I agree that the British and others did the majority of the fighting, but without the massive amount of supplies and weapons the they sent, the other allied powers would have been nearly sunk. The ones who truly won WWII were still the Russians though. And besides, the reason for the Germans losing really didn't have nearly as much to do with Allied superiority, but rather Hitlers massive number of mistakes.

 

[brodie21]

enough with american hate threads, it was a war that happened over 60 years ago and we were attacked by an ally of nazi germany while our allies were pressuring us to join the war to alleviate their burdens. realistically put, the British, Australians, and Canadians could not have won the war on their own the Russians might have, but with an extremely inflated death toll.


and by the way, what do you mean by disillusion? do you mean that we dont like it? because i am pretty sure that america was (and is) proud of the way that thing ended, you know, with us winning and becoming a major world power?

 

[skywalkerlion]

I don't think Americans "won" the war, but considering how the vast majority of the Pacific theater was fought by the Americans I'd say they fought pretty close to half of it. I'd say the greatest involvement in Germany though (or rather France) was D-Day, where American forces did as much as the other 2 nations.

 

[maswell]

It was all Canada baby.

 

[Jedoro]

I believe that without America's industrialization, and thus the fact that they pretty much fueled the Allied war effort, that Germany and Japan would've easily won.

 

[brodie21]

Assuming all Americans think the same?

Nice.

You're right, though. You still might have won, but so many things could have happened. Hell, if Hitler actually listened to his generals more often, the Allies still might have lost.

Scary to think what could have happend if Rommel was in charge.

dann mehr von den Menschen der Welt wäre sprechen Deutsch und essen Bratwurst jetzt

 

[Wrists]

Thats because they had shit generals for having such a high casualty count, Zhukov was almost as ruthless as Stalin because he didn't give a shit how many people died, and the Southern general was looked down upon because he didn't advance as far as Zhukov did, even though he was trying to save lives. It was Stalin's fault for executing his best commanders right before WWII and replacing them with these inexperienced ones, so I doubt they really should be given such credit.

This is comparable to Conrad the commander of the Austrian army in WWI, he had great plans which didn't think of the terrain and he wasted so many lives that he crippled the Austrian military and let the Germans take even more credit for saving their ass. Coincidentally he was a brilliant general to some aspiring Soviet commanders, funny how things turned out.

I was going more along the lines that given the enormous human sacrifice of the Soviets during the Great Patriotic War, it's simply disrespectful not to give them a decent chunk of the credit for the war ending when it did, with the outcome we wished for.

While you can say the leadership was poor, and I'm hardly arguing, they did what they did with the tools available. In this case that meant thousands of soldiers with little training and in some cases not enough firearms to go around. Perhaps the mos viable tactic was to throw men at a problem until it dissolved....not ideal perhaps but ultimately effective.

Also, your name is quite ironic given the first part of your post, unless I misunderstood it.

 

[Zhukov]

I love how the OP says "Americans are trying to steal all the credit, it was really all us" then completely fails to mention Russia.

Mate, you're just as bad as the yanks.

 

[sneakypenguin]

The industrial and technical capacity to wage war. No British fighters had the range to strike at germany, the 13 thousand B17 bombers tens of thousands of B26 B24, mustang, thunderbolt and lightning aircraft with the range and specs to fly interdiction and escort missions into the heart of german held land. The production of much of the landing craft LST's etc. The sherman tank, the M1 garand. Pretty much any military hardware you can think of. Pretty much waging war solo (other than australia) in the pacific theater. Without the US the allies never even get across the channel. A second front is never opened russia stalls with soul crushing losses and Hitler's Germany hangs onto much of europe, und du würdest Deutsch als Zweitsprache haben.

Not to downplay other countries but without russia or the US europe was screwed, lord knows the resistance wasn't gonna do jack. Heck even with the US if hitler had let his generals make the decisions europe is still prolly screwed.


Just look at the hardware supplied and try to tell me the allies could have done it alone, it would be neigh impossible.

 

[Grey_Focks]

ugh...I'm just gonna go ahead and say all three "main" countries in the Allied forces were close to equally important, and without any one of them the allies probably would have lost.

Oh, and OP seems to be almost completely ignoring the war in the pacific, which was fought almost solely by America...but hey, bashin' america is fun!

 

[DarkRyter]

I don't think that's the right way to use the word disillusion.

Quite the opposite in fact.

I guess this makes me a Grammar Nazi.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If you are going to play that card, you left out the Russians. And I don't think I've ever met a single one of my countrymen who believes the United States won World War II by themselves. I have, however, met a bunch of people who feel they need to tear down the sacrifices of my country in that war, just to put their country on top.

It was called "WORLD War II" because most the the world took part in it, one way or another.

 

[hiiamolli]

No one won the war, all of humanity lost it.

 

[ENKC]

That's a common misconception, Actually the Russians won world war 2, they lost 20 million people and entire towns starved just leading and holding the Germans into Russia where many of them died.

If it weren't for them Germany would have invaded huge chunks of Europe easily.

Your first paragraph I get, but I you may wish to rethink your wording of the second. Germany *did* invade huge chunks of Europe with relative ease. Nearly all of it in fact.

 

[Aerowaves]

80% of German troops were deployed against the Russians compared to 20% against Allied forces after the D-Day landings.

 

[FruitFusion]

As a Dutch man, i thank the russians for defeating fascism,
and thank the rest of the world from keeping communism at bay.

Aside from some sabotage the Dutch wernt very instrumental in europe.
We did more battle in the "Pacific theater".

 

[Yureina]

As somebody who studied WW2 extensively, I know full well that the American perspective of the war is somewhat flawed. Yes, the USA most certainly was a major part of the victory, but they did not win by themselves. The British were quite important, the Soviets absolutely essential to beating the Germans, the Chinese very effective at wearing down the Japanese, the French at giving what support and resistance they could even after their country was overrun, and much more. All of these powers were very important.

The reason why it seems so US dominated... is because much of the material about the war comes out of the US, and so it carries a US perspective.

 

[loc978]

Please don't lump all of us in with loudmouthed, ignorant conservatives. They're just a vocal minority.

Specifically LOUDMOUTHED Conservatives? Or just Conservatives? Either way, that's a broad and prejudiced assumption. As is that Conservatives are a minority, by any means. But as this is technically the wrong thread to bring this up, I submit that America's biggest focus was against Japan both in the battle for territory and the attempt at liberation of China. American involvement in Europe was significant and helpful, but by no means an awe-inspiring red-white-and-blue blitzkrieg that purified Europe like the old jingoistic propaganda posters would imply.

I meant exactly what I said. Not all conservatives are loudmouths, not all conservatives are ignorant, but those who are all three are a vocal minority... and by your response, you've got two out of three... plus being an easily offended, knee-jerk responder.

 

[Nieroshai]

Please don't lump all of us in with loudmouthed, ignorant conservatives. They're just a vocal minority.

Specifically LOUDMOUTHED Conservatives? Or just Conservatives? Either way, that's a broad and prejudiced assumption. As is that Conservatives are a minority, by any means. But as this is technically the wrong thread to bring this up, I submit that America's biggest focus was against Japan both in the battle for territory and the attempt at liberation of China. American involvement in Europe was significant and helpful, but by no means an awe-inspiring red-white-and-blue blitzkrieg that purified Europe like the old jingoistic propaganda posters would imply.

I meant exactly what I said. Not all conservatives are loudmouths, not all conservatives are ignorant, but those who are all three are a vocal minority... and by your response, you've got two out of three... plus being an easily offended, knee-jerk responder.

Re-read several times, had other people read it, still can't find where I was rude. I was simply pointing out an assumption that irritates me. Sure the Conservatives being numerous part is debatable, but not that many Americans will openly admit to being Liberal(or Progressive) either. Not easily offended. Barely offended. Just wanted to make my thoughts clear to the forum using your oh-so-helpful post.

 

[FruitFusion]

lol just found out that the dutch almost prevented pearl harbor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hein_ter_Poorten