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The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. Other historians suggest that America’s use of two nuclear weapons against Japan was a hasty effort to make it surrender before the Red Army landed in Japan. The heroic resistance of the Russian, their enormous sacrifice and suffering, their capacity to inflict grievous losses on the Germans, attest to their contribution to victory. By the time the Allies established themselves in France, they outnumbered degraded German forces by 2:1. As for 1944 & 1945, those years clearly belonged to Stalin. ... and though it did not seem so to the western Allies and their peoples at the time, posterity can see that the Soviets did most of it. But we shouldn't forget how the Soviets won World War II in Europe. Related on WorldViews. The epic battles that eventually rolled back the Nazi advance -- the brutal winter siege of Stalingrad, the clash of thousands of armored vehicles at Kursk (the biggest tank battle in history) -- had no parallel on the Western Front, where the Nazis committed fewer military assets. That it was yet able to turn back the German invasion is testament to the courage of the Soviet war effort. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. Media Fuels Economic War on Nicaragua with False ‘Conflict Beef’ Story, Who The #Resistance Was Actually #Resisting These Last Four Years, Joe Biden Might Have Good Instincts, but His Foreign Policy Team Doesn’t, John Kerry’s Think Tank Calls for War With Russia Over Climate Change, OPCW executives praised whistleblower and criticized Syria cover-up, leaks reveal. In the process, 1,710 Russian cities, 70,000 towns and villages, 31,850 factories and 1,974 collective farms were destroyed. Hitler viewed much of what's now Eastern Europe as a site for "lebensraum" -- living space for an expanding German empire and race. The Germans correctly estimated that there were about 150 divisions in the western parts of the U.S.S.R. and reckoned that 50 more might be produced. In his memoirs, Eisenhower was appalled by the extent of the carnage: When we flew into Russia, in 1945, I did not see a house standing between the western borders of the country and the area around Moscow. Today, however, we have chosen to forget who really won the war in Europe. The Soviets repulsed the important German strategic southern campaign and, although 2.5 million Soviet casualties were suffered in that effort, it permitted the Soviets to take the offensive for most of the rest of the war on the Eastern Front. But millions of others were also killed, abused, dispossessed of their lands and left to starve. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. Had Germany’s Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe not been largely destroyed in Russia, the Normandy D-Day invasion would likely have been pushed into the Channel. Russian soldiers defend Moscow from Gorky Park during the Second World War, Soviet troops climb out of a trench during the Battle of Stalingrad. © 2010 - 2020 | Strategic Culture Foundation | Stalin killed far more people than Adolf Hitler, including 6 million Ukrainians liquidated in the early 1930’s and four million Muslims during the war. At least 67,000 German soldiers died in the Normandy operation. They defeated Nazi Germany and saved many of our men from death. This included the wholesale massacre of millions of European Jews, the majority of whom lived outside Germany's pre-war borders to the east. Roosevelt spoke warmly of Stalin as “Uncle Joe.” Churchill kept silent. The shattering of the Kwantung army is believed by some historians to have contributed to Japan’s surrender. Continue Reading Below. The Soviet armed forces destroyed 507 German divisions and 100 allied Axis divisions (according to Soviet figures). By 1943, the Soviet Union had already lost some 5 million soldiers and two-thirds of its industrial capacity to the Nazi advance. Operation … Eric MARGOLIS. At Stalingrad the Soviets took more than 90,000 Germans prisoner. This was a shameless lie and distortion of the facts. But we shouldn't forget how the Soviets won World War II in Europe. Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. The US Navy swept the seas of the Imperial Japanese Navy in a series of brilliant actions that rate among the greatest feats in naval history, but Japan still held large parts of China and Manchuria. World War II veteran Stepan Petukhov, 90, of Russia, sits in a U.S.-made, World War II-era Willys jeep at Gorky Park in Moscow in 2011. The Soviets had successfully defended their territories and were now pushing their forces towards Berlin. By one calculation, for every single American soldier killed fighting the Germans, 80 Soviet soldiers died doing the same. Now, they would begin to push the Germans back. The impact of Western Aid (Lend-Lease) on the Soviet Union's war effort is a highly debated topic. The memory of the war, referred to as the Great Patriotic War, is particularly venerated in Russia. Most Europeans would rather not think about the matter. On 9 Aug, 1945, the Soviets unleashed one of the war’s largest campaigns. Soviet military historians claim their forces destroyed 77,000 enemy planes, 48,000 enemy tanks and armored vehicles. Soviet Ukraine bore the brunt of the war, losing some 5 million soldiers and 6 million civilians – roughly half of total Soviet losses. necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation. Russo-Finnish War (November 30, 1939–March 12, 1940), also called the Winter War, war waged by the Soviet Union against Finland at the beginning of World War II, following the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (August 23, 1939). Hitler Was an Evil Genius. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? June 20, 2020, 7:29 AM. Not only did Stalin’s Soviet Union play the key role in crushing Nazi Germany, its huge sacrifices saved the lives of countless American, British and Canadian soldiers. So, rant over, long story short, no, Russia did not win WWII by themselves, they couldn’t have won it by themselves even if they’d wanted to, the Soviets were only kept in the fight at all because of American industry and aid, and only got into the mess they did at all because Stalin liked the cut of the Nazi’s jib, before … Red Army troops storm a building, and German prisoners, below, during the Battle of Stalingrad, Robert Capa's images of the Second World War, VE Day 70th anniversary: We should never forget - the Soviets won, but few of the world's major leaders attended, Revealed: The forgotten secrets of Stalingrad, Hitler's troops stayed alert during by taking crystal meth, Russia Today: 'If anyone knows real Nazis it’s the Royal Family', Russia's VE day: A spectacular show, but few A-list guests, Russia also has Victory Day – but nobody wants to share it, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. The Soviet gulag was grinding up victims well into the 1950’s. The reason Germany had no air cover at Normandy was because most of the once potent Luftwaffe had been destroyed on the Eastern Front, its best pilots killed, and aviation fuel scarce. Britain may have been invaded well before June, 1944. It was fought on the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, through the rubble of recaptured French towns and capped by sepia-toned scenes of joy and young love in New York. This was a shameless lie and distortion of the facts. The USSR’s losses are now estimated at about 26.6 million, accounting for half of all WW2 casualties. Most people believed Germany would quickly crush the Soviet Union. A lone German soldier hobbles round a waterlogged crater in which are reflected the devastated buildings of Stalingrad. He says that between 1933 and 1945 in the "bloodlands" -- the broad sweep of territory on the periphery of the Soviet and Nazi realms -- some 14 million civilians were killed. The number of Soviet deaths was at first grossly distorted – the figure Stalin gave in 1946 was seven million. A startling new study suggests that Germany could have won a key battle in World War II and perhaps changed the outcome of the war if they had made a few small strategic changes. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. May 17, 2020 | Editor's Сhoice. For Russia's neighbors, it's hard to separate the Soviet triumph from the decades of Cold War domination that followed. How the world is still fighting World War II. But agreements around what the Soviets would have access to in terms of spheres of influence were decided prior to 1944, although it was regularly … If Hitler was to win, it had to be before the Anglo-Americans mustered their strength, and before the Soviets reorganized their armies and harnessed their vast industrial potential. The views of individual contributors do not The Axis forces (comprised of German, Italian, Romanian and Hungarian troops) suffered 800,000 casualties, the Soviets more than one million. Warfare History Network. Today, seven decades later, we are barraged with films and reports about Germany’s concentration camps while Stalin’s far more extensive and lethal gulag is ignored. Much of this aid flowed to the United Kingdom and other nations already at war with Germany and Japan through an … These latter included the pan-European Waffen SS whose largest numbers came from Belgium, Holland, Scandinavia, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland and a division from Spain. Yes, Hitler Almost Did Beat Soviet Russia (And Win World War II) Read full article. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Many Americans and Canadians like to believe their nations won the war in Europe and give insufficient recognition to the decisive Soviet role. Unfairly or not, the current tensions obscure the scale of what's being commemorated: Starting in 1941, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine and played perhaps the most important role in the Allies' defeat of Hitler. That is a reflection of the tense geopolitical present, with Putin's relations with the West having turned frosty after a year of Russian meddling in Ukraine. The Impact of Lend-Lease (VIDEO) The impact of Western Aid (Lend-Lease) on the … (© Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/AP Images) Even before the United States entered World War II in December 1941, America was sending arms and equipment to the Soviet Union to … "The Holocaust overshadows German plans that envisioned even more killing. The Soviet Union Defeated Germany in World War II – Not the Western Forces. Soviet forces reached Port Arthur in northern China, much of Manchuria and right up to Korea’s 38th parallel. Hitler wanted not only to eradicate the Jews; he wanted also to destroy Poland and the Soviet Union as states, exterminate their ruling classes, and kill tens of millions of Slavs," writes historian Timothy Snyder in "Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin.". In the final battle for Berlin, the USSR lost 80k. VE Day 70th anniversary: We should never forget - the Soviets won 'An estimated 26 million Soviet citizens died during World War II, including as many as 11 million soldiers' But it also threw away Germany's only real chance of outright victory. The consequence was that, though the Germans succeeded in … In the years preceding World War II, Stalinist purges led to the death and starvation of millions. The views of individual contributors do not In a heartbreaking but little-known statistic of war, 6.7 million German horses were killed on both fronts. Equally important, the Allies had absolute air superiority over the Western European battlefields. Let’s do the numbers. The horrors were compounded by the Nazi invasion. But that narrative shifts dramatically when you go to Russia, where World War II is called the Great Patriotic War and is remembered in a vastly different light. The answer to question, “did the Soviets really win the war?” is I think obvious. Did the Soviet Union win the war? Under strength German units had almost no gasoline and were low on ammunition, tanks and artillery. It was a grand moment, but few of the world's major leaders attended. During World War II, the United States began to provide significant military supplies and other assistance to the Allies in September 1940, even though the United States did not enter the war until December 1941. Claimed By: The [Alternate] … Planes could not fly, tanks and trucks could not move, and warships were forced to stay in port. Everywhere else at that time, the USA lost only 9k. The Red Army was "the main engine of Nazism’s destruction," writes British historian and journalist Max Hastings in "Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945." The leading Russian military historian Dmitri Volkogonov revealed during the Gorbachev years that Russia’s total losses from 1941-1945 were 26.6 to 27 million dead. During 1941, 3.3 million Red Army soldiers were captured; by February 1942, roughly 2 million of them were dead. The early capture of Moscow would have had an undeniable psychological impact and may have been … It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. It has been said that no one really won the Cold War — if you're wondering. To be sure, as Snyder documents, the Soviet Union under Stalin also had the blood of millions on its hands. 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