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A coincidence of finding this link. My 2 cents: What areas did the US and its allies exploit? Code breaking, a strategic air force, technology and political systems. It’s been written that Russian communications were basically wide open. Knowing where and when your enemy will attack was one benefit of ULTRA. The US owned the skies. Bringing overwhelming forces to bear against US ground troops was effective when US planes were grounded due to weather, i.e. Battle of the Bulge. But in clear weather, the German Army couldn't move in daylight. As to the Russians having 4 times as many tanks, per General Patton he didn’t want a tank with a bigger main gun but with more machine guns. Why? Because he said tanks were for infantry, airplanes for tanks. What tank could survive a 5” rocket? What army’s logistical system can survive a free ranging air force? Russia’s greater troop strength seems to me to be negated by the above.
I’ve read: 2 Americans in a jeep could capture more Germans than a Russian Battalion and a Russian soldier stated that ‘at least you no longer have Hitler, but we still have Stalin’. The US army would basically be fighting with a home field advantage. How many Russians would come over? Which counties would rather be liberated by Russians rather than Americans? If the US allowed Japan to surrender with terms in May 1945, what prevents US pacific Naval forces from taking Vladivostok? Russian numerically superior forces would be negated by civil war. It would have been important for the world to see Stalin as the aggressor or wrong, I don't know how that could be done.
US war production and transportation was basically safe from Russian attack. Not so with Russia. Not their rail system, not their industry. Speer mentions a study of Russian electrical grid. It was concentrated enough for even the tactical German air force for a time. Russia had an air force, but their bases would have disappeared first. The Russians could not threaten bomber bases in England and Floggia. All trains basically passed through Moscow, it was also the center of communications and political power. All within range of US bombers. With or without an atomic weapon.
The way I see it, if the American people were willing, were rallied around something like ‘remember the Maine’, then the US wins. The Russian Army might have been able to take a couple of steps forward to start, but after that they run out of gas, food, ammunition, orders from Moscow, what then? Those Army commanders look behind them and see peoples that do not like them, Poles, Germans, peoples from the Baltic countries, possibly Ukrainians, etc. What Army wants that?
Last edited by lightguy7; 03-27-2015 at 08:38 AM..
This post about the USA and Russia having a war got me thinking if we want to debate that how about we do it at the end of WWII when both nations were very powerful ? The USA had the largest air force and Navy in the world and the USSR had the largest Army. And the USA did have the atomic bomb. So how would that have gone if they had started a fight over say Poland and Eastern Europe ? I just thought this would give alot to talk about and thankfully it did never happen but what if it did how do you think it would have went ? Ron
Everyone was more than ready for the war end by 1945, so a continued war with the Soviets would have suffered from very low morale and been utterly pointless as there was point or strategic gain to be made from invading the USSR.
Timing is important in war and by then the time for total war had passed in the hearts and minds of the people, making such an endeavor an inevitable failure.
It would have been a cakewalk for the USA and Allies to
topple the Communist regime in USSR, which would have
also stopped communism in China, Korea, SE Asia, E Europe,
and Balkans.
That's just not what the puppetmasters wanted.
Yes, look how easily you managed it with just a keyboard.
The United States lost less than 420,000 men from December 7th, 1941 to VJ Day. That is the total for a global war between massive powers.
The Soviet Union lost 479,000 men, more than 4,000 tanks, nearly 16,000 artillery pieces, and close to 2,800 aircraft, in addition to 650,000 wounded and 40,000 dead civilians at Stalingrad alone. And this was a VICTORY!
The American public is too soft to deal with sustained attacks or massive casualties. Even then, our people were protected by two oceans and had no concept of the horror of mass bombing or large scale invasion (or any invasion, for that matter).
There was no stomach for a fight with the Soviets. Would we have won? Perhaps with enough effort, air power and the use of atomic weapons, yes. But if the willpower is not there, having the strength is a moot point.
The US didn't own a ****. And their navy had the most humiliating defeat during WWII from Nazis ever happened to the US including even the shame of Pearl Harbor.
The US didn't own a ****. And their navy had the most humiliating defeat during WWII from Nazis ever happened to the US including even the shame of Pearl Harbor.
No need for invasion, just pound tanks and infrastructure with long range planes. Cut suppy lines from the Urals, cut the Volga, arm civilians, freedom for republics.
With Azon, i'm wonder how many of the few remaining bridges the USSR depended on for supply, would have been left standing.
Maybe someone will come up with a computer game, WWII USA vs USSR someday. I found the original question interesting because it was a larger blunter instrument (USSR) vs a smaller, technological one (USA), one spinning down, vs one spinning up. The other reason it's so interesting is because what if it happened and Stalin and a communist USSR fell. How much less suffering, death, loss of treasure might have occurred. But that's a totally different 'what if' forum.
This post about the USA and Russia having a war got me thinking if we want to debate that how about we do it at the end of WWII when both nations were very powerful ? The USA had the largest air force and Navy in the world and the USSR had the largest Army. And the USA did have the atomic bomb. So how would that have gone if they had started a fight over say Poland and Eastern Europe ? I just thought this would give alot to talk about and thankfully it did never happen but what if it did how do you think it would have went ? Ron
At the end of WW2:
The world was sick of war, with something like 80 million dead, and there was no appetite for starting another huge and costly conflict. Billions breathed a collective sigh of relief at the conclusion of history's bloodiest chapter.
The USSR was absolutely bled white with something like 30 million deaths. Although they did have a large army, most of it E. Europe, their ability to conduct another protracted conflict was probably very limited. They were truly at the end of their logistical string.
In the US, the government would have been almost literally "skinned alive" had it entered into another major conflict.
There didn't exist the will on either side to continue fighting.
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