The Germans invaded Russia at the worst possible moment for the Russians. The Soviet army was disorganized and severely weakened from the purges and their dispositions were poor as they had left their previous well prepared positions in the USSR and were occupying only partially prepared positions in Poland. During the first summer they repeatedly suffered horrific defeats due to Stalin's poor handling of the campaign. In the first 4 months of a 4 year war the Soviets took something like half of their total military losses for the entire war. Despite having almost every piece of good luck they could possibly have in 1941, the Germans still did not defeat the Soviets. By the end of 1941 the Soviets inflicted a serious defeat on the Germans before the US properly entered the war, much less before the West gave them any substantive help from the Western Allies.
IMO the Soviets did by far the Lion’s share of defeating the Germans. And they would have done it with or without help from the West (although at a far greater cost). Germany did not have the staying power to win a prolonged war against either the Soviet Union or the Western Allies. Either the West or Russia would have had the resources to prevail over Germany alone, as long as Germany did not manage to force an early victory.
Hooligan
Sorry Hooligan with this over view I must disagree.
if your going to bring into this topic the upper mismanagement of the Russian military then you must, in a perfect world, bring in the complete incompetence of the German leaders.
Hitler redirected the Wehrmacht how many different times? pulled men or materials out of the original battle plan to accomplish missions that could easily have waited until after the Russians fell?
had say Rommel or one of the other professional soldiers of the Wehrmacht been in complete control of the military instead of Hitler then the Russians would have been crushed in the first summer.
the battle of Stalingrad would have never happened, the battle of kursk would have never happened these battles that allowed the Russians to use their massive numbers in body wave after body wave would have not happened. no mechanized commander allows his army to fall into a static siege war nor would he allow the precious materials, fuel, food, ammunition, air support ect to be diverted away from his front line troops.
so incompetence was rampant on both sides of that fight.
the western allies kept Hitler busy in Africa, Italy and building fortress Europe. had these massive depletion on the Wehrmacht not been a constant and steady reality, then the Wehrmacht would have been over double its initial strength when they invaded Russia. it would not have had to split its supply between multiple fronts, the Luftwaffe would have been immeasurably stronger.
if not for the war on two fronts the Russians would have been crushed without pause.
the Russians did alot, yes i will credit them for their massive sacrifice of men. but that is all they had, the advantage of having more soldiers than the germans had bullets.
the human wave attack is not a tactic or strategy. it is the form of war practiced by those without skill.
it didn't work for china or the north Koreans it didn't win any major battles in Vietnam. it is a losing strategy. unless you have more bodies than your enemy has bullets in the end you will lose.
so i respectfully disagree with you.
i would have to say the credit goes to America. their resources were out of the axis bomber range, they had a large force of men, had lots of factories and ports to produce war machines, had good commanders to deploy the troops, and had the mentality that we could do anything,
so overall America helped the most, though credit should go out to all the allied forces who took on the axis.
but you forget, without having England as a staging area, then the American military would have been unable to get a foot hold anywhere in Europe.
without the bulk of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe being tied up elsewhere, America even launching from England, would have never successfully managed a landing in Europe. or if by some fluke they managed a beach head, they would have been pushed into the ocean in record time if they had to face the entire military might of Germany.
so America cannot take the majority of the credit for the victory.
no one or combination of two of the allies could have done it. even with all three together, if Hitler and his cronies had not been so incompetent Germany would have won. if not total victory then at the least a negotiated peace in the end.
FLOTSOM
