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Originally Posted by Shiva_TD
Speculation on "what ifs" is always subjective but there are some facts to support the belief that the USSR was the predominate force in ending the war against Germany.
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It was a joint effort, the USSR could not have ended the war without us and we could not have ended it without them.
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Most historical scholars cite the battle of Stalingrad as the turing point in Europe.
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So was Africa, so was Italy, so was D-Day, so was Midway, so was Guadalcanal, there were LOTS of turning points.
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Germany was not defeated at that point but they were no longer aggressors and were in retreat on the Eastern Front.
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And had the US and the UK not attacked and began to drive them back on the southern and western fronts the USSR would not have been able to drive them back very far.
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That was in Feburary 1943 well over a year before the Normandy invasion.
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But not Africa, and Hitler had to commit forces to his western front.
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The primary reason for the Normandy invasion was to draw of German forces opposing the USSR on the Eastern Front.
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Hardly, although it was a result. It was to take back France, Belgium and the other western countries cut off his shipping lanes in the west, take back the Rhur and force him to fight on two fronts. They went hand in hand.
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Throughout the European theater the USSR faced the bulk of the Germany and not the US/British forces in the Western campaign.
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So what? With out the joint allied effort and the sacrifices the US made they would have been defeated.
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The US/British efforts certainly supplemented and were significant to Russian offensive but even without it Russian forces were advancing in the East on Germany.
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An advance that would not have been possible first without all the aid and equipment we supplied them, second without the western front we attacked. And let's not forget the US took on the Japanese virtually alone while ALSO fighting the Germans.
And we were SUCCESSFUL as opposed to other assertions.
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The dropping of the atom bomb had as much to do with stopping the Russian military advance in Asia as it did about ending the war. Even then Truman and Churchill had realized that they might be sleeping with the enemy (Stalin).
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It was certainly a consideration at the time, but the USSR would not have been advancing on them had we not already destroyed the Japanese ability to withstand them, in fact it would have been just the opposite.
It was a joint effort all around, and it was a success.