Who saved the world in WW2? (8/7/2018)

(8/7/2018)

This is a Quora post written in response to a U.S. soldier pouring scorn on the polite and peaceful Canadian commenters, trotting out the same old drivel about how the world should be grateful that America saved them in World War II. If he says so, it must be an indisputable fact. Or is it? Allow me to cast some doubts.

For readers who don’t know much about history, here is a quote from Sir Winston Churchill taken from British Parliament records June 10, 1943: “On the European front, the most important development of the past year has been the crushing offensive of the great armies of Russia against the powerful German army. Those Russian forces have destroyed and are destroying more of the armed power of our enemies—troops, planes, tanks, and guns—than all the other United Nations put together.” * 

That was a few months after the Battle of Stalingrad and shortly before the Battle of Kursk was to begin. After the Battle of Kursk, Hitler was practically finished. He had nothing to stop Soviet tanks from rolling into Berlin. The Soviet Union had crushed the German war machine single-handedly with no direct help from their Western Allies, who had been promising a second front on the Atlantic coast since after Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Kursk ended in the fall of 1943, nine months before the Normandy Landings. Soviet Red Army did in fact enter Berlin, not the Western Allies.

The Soviet Red Army also went to Manchuria and crushed the 700,000 man Japanese Kwantung Army (with 200,000 subsidiary) within a 10 day campaign, contributing to if not directly responsible for Japan’s decision to an unconditional surrender. Japan did not surrender after America dropped the atomic bombs to slaughter Japanese citizens.

As for the US military suffering defeats, it first happened during the Korean War, when poorly armed peasant soldiers from China, wielding personal weapons, with no war preparations, no winter clothing for minus 40 winter warfare, no transport, no heavy artillery, and no logistics, had to brave unchallenged bombing from the air to drive the American soldiers back to the 38th Parallel. 

Only some wrong-headed people who have not studied history would believe the propaganda that anyone saved the world on their own. In destroying the German war machine, the Soviet Union suffered 24 to 27 million casualties. Every family was touched by what they called the Great Patriotic War. America suffered about 450,000 casualties. Victory over the Nazis was gained by joint effort of the allies, with great contribution by the Soviet Union, not by any single party.

* This was erroneously attributed, perhaps for propaganda purposes, to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the beginning of the wartime documentary "Why We Fight" directed by Frank Capra.

Caveat: links to Wikipedia are for casual reference only. One should be aware that Wikipedia articles are not always accurate or without bias. Readers who are interested in the subject should conduct more in-depth research.