Who mostly won WW2? (slave, date, western, political)

[WinterStar]

Switzerland. They were laughing all the way to the bank! Seriously, the Soviet Union paid the highest price, but the Americans had advanced far more into Germany before meeting the Soviets at the Elbe River. A team effort where it is celebrated each year on April 25th in Torgau, Germany.

[LINative]

Originally Posted by OleSchoolFool

I know it was an allied effort, but which nation is really responsible for the victory?

My feeling is that neither the Soviet Union or America could have beat the German war machine without the help of the other. Or at the very least the war would have gone on alot longer.

But the real answer to your opening question - which nation is really responsible for the victory? is none of the above. The nation that is really responsible for the victory is not on your poll. And that nation is the one who stood up to Hitler from Day 1 of the war, while the United States stayed neutral for more than 2 years and the Soviet Union actually sent supplies to Hitler's war machine.

This nation would never surrender while one European nation after another was invaded, and refused to give into Hitler's territorial and peace demands until it finally, somehow, it outlasted him and was able to get a Allied coalition together big enough to topple Hitler and his henchman Mussolini.

From Winston Churchill:

"....However matters may go in France or with the French Government or with another French Government, we in this island and in the British Empire will never lose our sense of comradeship with the French people. If we are now called upon to endure what they have suffered we shall emulate their courage, and if final victory rewards our toils they shall share the gains, aye. And freedom shall be restored to all. We abate nothing of our just demands—Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians, all who have joined their causes to our own shall be restored.

What General Weygand has called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.

But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth[5] last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour."

[DontLookPhoto]

Perhaps the simple answer to the question of who won the war, (forget the poll), it would be the Italians as they switched sides when they saw the tide turning.

[Phil306]

I think I'll throw a great big monkey wrench into all of this. The country which benefitted the most from World War II? Germany.

Germany, right now, is THE premier power in the EU. Its economy is stronger then all of the rest of the EU combined. They may have lost two world wars, yet they are still financially head and shoulders above the rest of the EU.

Greece, Italy, and other countries are counting on Germany to bail them out. Germany continues to grow financially and socially. Making it still, one of the worlds superpowers. Germany lost very little in the wars; except people.

[TOkidd]

I can't believe that so many people have bought into the Hollywood myth that America was most responsible for victory of the war in Europe. They only faced one major offensive - The Battle of the Bulge. Britain, with help from the Commomwealth, had largely held its own in the battle for air supremacy and the allies had - together - beaten back the Nazis in North Africa and Italy. America gets all the credit, but the Soviet Union did the most to win the war in Europe.

[Chango]

Originally Posted by Phil306

I think I'll throw a great big monkey wrench into all of this. The country which benefitted the most from World War II? Germany.

Germany, right now, is THE premier power in the EU. Its economy is stronger then all of the rest of the EU combined. They may have lost two world wars, yet they are still financially head and shoulders above the rest of the EU.

Greece, Italy, and other countries are counting on Germany to bail them out. Germany continues to grow financially and socially. Making it still, one of the worlds superpowers. Germany lost very little in the wars; except people.

Well, they did get a remodeled Reichstag out of it at least. Not sure if it was really worth 9 million lives and getting every major city leveled though.

[OleSchoolFool]

this thread is bout who is responsible for the victory, not who benefited from it, as that is a whole separate discussion so lets stay on topic

[Mikestone8]

Didn't AJP Taylor put it in a nutshell?

Germany was defeated by Russia, Japan by America and Italy (with great difficulty) by Britain.

[konfetka]

The results of this poll just illustrate how misinformed and out of touch with the world some Americans still are.

America lives on it's own little island and sees it's history through pink colored Hollywood lens.

Gaps in education is really a potentially dangerous disadvantage. It just shows that you don't need a communist dictatorship to spin stories in history textbooks.

Disinformation is what starts wars.

[Snowball7]

The bankers won. Everyone else lost.