The role of the USSR in defeating Germany was greater than that of the Western Allies

The Soviets by far were the most important allied country. Let"s face it: World War II was lost, and then won on the Eastern Front. It"s where the vast majority of the German military was concentrated from June 1941 until the end of the war in Europe. Germany knew it had to beat the Soviets or lose the war. Which country broke the back of the German military? That would be the Soviet Union. Eight out of ten German war dead were killed fighting the Soviets on the Eastern Front. The other two out of ten can be divided up between fighting the U.S. and Britain on the Western Front, in Italy, in North Africa and in all the German invasions starting with the invasion of Poland. 80% versus less than 20% for the Western Allies, no contest. Now before anyone says anything about Lend-Lease let me just mention that it had literally no impact on the fighting in the east before the outcome of the war was decided. The defense of Moscow in late 1941 guaranteed that the Germans wouldn't"t win the war in 1941. The campaign in the south (Case Blue) leading up to the battle of Stalingrad and the battle of Stalingrad itself sealed Germany"s fate, there was no way that it could win the war after its crushing defeat at Stalingrad in which it lost all of 6th Army, part of 4th Panzer Army and a great amount of Romanian, Hungarian and Italian forces. Stalingrad wrapped up in early February 1943. From that point on Germany couldn't"t win the war. It tried a much smaller offensive in the summer of 1943 to try to pinch off the Kursk salient however Germany failed losing most of its remaining armored units in the process. After that it was all downhill for Germany. What were the Western Allies doing at the time of Stalingrad and Kursk? During the Stalingrad battle the best the Western Allies could do was to finally drive German and Italian forces out of Africa after three long years of fighting. During Kursk? The Western Allies were playing fiddle in Sicily. And what were the Soviets doing when the U.S., Britain, and Canada were trying their best to carve out a larger beachhead at Normandy? The Soviets were crushing the German Army Group Center, its biggest concentration of forces. The U.S. and Britain would not have even launched their invasion of Normandy if the Soviets had not already broken the back of Germany on the Eastern Front and ensured that it was militarily crippled. D-Day was most certainly not the turning point of the war and its biggest importance was to ensure that the Soviets wouldn't"t end up "liberating" France. Basically the U.S. and Britain picked away around the margins while the Soviets were in the knock down, drag out fight of their lives to decide the outcome of the war. With the outcome no longer in doubt as Germany had been crippled already the U.S. and Britain then were able to mount an invasion of Normandy. Anybody who doesn't realize that the war was decided on the Eastern Front and that everything else was a sideshow by comparison doesn't know that much about World War II. Let me compare some of the Battles that the Western Allies fought with the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk. The Second Battle of El Alamein is considered to be one of the most important battles of WWII. In this battle the axis suffered 30,542 casualties. [1] At the Battle of the Bulge, Germany suffered approximately 80,000 casualties. [2] At Stalingrad, the Germany suffered a staggering 850,000 casualties. [3] At Kursk, the Germans suffered 250,000-300,000 casualties. [4] As for the Western Allied bombings, they had no effect on the outcome of the war. While the Western Allies were bombing and terrorizing German cities and destroying factories, the Soviets were bombing the German front lines along a 2,000 mile long front. Britain promised to open a second front in 1942, yet failed to do so. Then Churchill said he would open a second front in France in 1943, and once again failed to do so. While the Western Allies stood on the sidelines until 11 months before the war ended, the Soviet were killing Germans in the millions on the eastern front. [5] Historians generally agree that there were three turning points in the war: The Battle of Moscow - ensured Germany would not win a quick war on its terms. The Battle of Stalingrad - ensured Germany would lose the war, the only question would be how badly. Would it be total defeat or a negotiated peace? The Battle of Kursk - answered this question. The only option left for Germany would be unconditional surrender. http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://news.bbc.co.uk... http://www.ushmm.org...