What Nation was The Number 1 factor in Defeating Hitler's Third Reich?

[BolshevikHunter]

1) Russia

2) Russia

3) By that time the Russian Army was too strong for the U.S. to do anything.

The Russians were broke.

They were running out of people. 25 million dead in the war.

Just the distance and the winters would have wiped out the Germans. We were at our strongest at the end of WWII.

I'm just glad we didn't have to find out.

We fielded over 100 divisions when one counts all the independent brigades and battalions. We had hundreds of ships and aircraft groups. The original plan was to field 200 Divisions but that was scaled back because there was no need.

If war broke out between the Soviets and us we would have been able to scale back production and recruit more divisions. Our goal was never to defeat the Soviets anyway.

Further we had the Atomic Bomb and they did not.

We provided almost every truck jeep and car they drove. They would have had to scale back tank production to make up the short fall. We provided food they would not have been able to replace with so many troops in the field.

During the war we provided them so much they could not provide it boggles the mind. The Soviets had men but without our production base and purse strings they would have had a hard time beating the Germans.

I agree. Another point is, Without The U.S bombers and The RAF bombing Germany's armarment factories (as Albert Speer said himself), there is no chance in hell that The Russians would have defeated Germany. Germany would have had a successful invasion, even if they had to wait out the winter. Either way, The Russians could have never have stood alone without our support against The German War Machine. ~BH

 

[ekrem]

We crushed them in tank production as well. Germany produced 18,000 AFVs of all types from 1939 to the end of the war. We produced 55,000 Shermans alone. Add to that Tank Destroyers (M-10, M18, M-36), light tanks (Stuart series and Chaffee) the Pershing tank that came into operation about the time we crossed the German frontier etc.

Yes, because USA had the resources.
I don't like if-what discussions, but you can picture yourself, what would've happened if Germany had the abundant resources which the US territory offers.

The Nazis were 'all-in', total-war. And they absolutely had the know-how.

 

[ekrem]

The Nazis tried to go self-sufficient in resource production, but they couldn't achieve it.
Whilst trying to be self-sufficient, they needlessly binded humans+money in unrentable mines or processes (synthetic fuel).

 

[westwall]

We crushed them in tank production as well. Germany produced 18,000 AFVs of all types from 1939 to the end of the war. We produced 55,000 Shermans alone. Add to that Tank Destroyers (M-10, M18, M-36), light tanks (Stuart series and Chaffee) the Pershing tank that came into operation about the time we crossed the German frontier etc.

Yes, because USA had the resources.
I don't like if-what discussions, but you can picture yourself, what would've happened if Germany had the abundant resources which the US territory offers.

The Nazis were 'all-in', total-war. And they absolutely had the know-how.

The Third Reich was too enamored of technology. Even if they had had the resources they wouldn't have used them properly. The Tiger is an amazing tank. However it was also notoriously unreliable. One entire company of them was lost save for one when they tried to retreat out of the Rome area. They attempted a road march of 100 kilometers and only one out of 17 made it, all the rest were captured intact. On the other hand a Sherman could drive 200 miles with no problem.

The same holds for their Jet aircraft. The Arado 234 is the best bomber in the world, if it can get off the ground. The same goes for the 262. The one place where they excelled was in small arms. If you ignore the G-41 and the G-43 and go straight to the STG-44 you have a world beater. Thankfully, once again, Hitler interfered in a revolutionary technology and the developers of the Mk-42(b) and the follow on MP-43, 44 and the final iteration of Sturmgewehr 44 were only able to produce around 425,000, add to that the MG-42 which is still in production today as the MG-3 and a host of variants manufactured around the world and you get an idea of why it was so difficult to take out a well placed defensive spot.

 

[Toronado3800]

You are correct my brother, but the weather arguement is overblown. After operation Barbarossa failed, there was still considerable strength in The German armed forces. It wasn't until the defeat at Stalingrad that Germany really started to lose the war. Alot of people mistake the Stalingrad battle with Lenigrad. Leningrad was Operation Barbarossa, where Stalingrad came years later as a last ditch effort. ~BH
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Battle of Moscow December 1941 - ends in German defeat partially because their equipment was not as good as Russian equipment.

December 1941 - US declares war on Germany

1942 Summer - Germans attack Stalingrad. Things go wrong, terribly. U.S. is having some daylight bombing nightmares.

1943 Summer - Kursk, largest tank battle ever. Germans finally getting a couple Panther tanks into the war. Oops, they did not work well. More importantly they attacked a prepared defensive position and get pushed back. Neat trick letting the Germans attack you and weaken themselves. Did we use this at the Bulge late the next year?

At the same time as Kursk the US lands in Italy.

I am going to hunt down manpower & plane disposition by year. 10k German troops at Stalingrad would not have made a difference. 100k might.... Still Germany's stupid fault starting all them wars.

 

[Toronado3800]

1. What Nation do you think was the number 1 factor in The defeat of Hitler's Third Reich?

2. Could any one single Nation of the Allies have defeated them all alone?

3. Should Eisenhower have listened to Patton, and pushed The Red Army completely out of East Germany?

~BH

1-I believe Russia was the number 1 factor. England gets points for being involved the longest. The U.S. gets points for industrial production and getting enough folks even over there to be in the conversation. Amazing given we were fighting a Pacific war also.

2-Defeated alone? Perhaps Russia if Germany did not figure out the A-bomb.

 

[Toronado3800]

Continued. Darn doublclick.

2-America if in Asia could maybe have defeated Germany alone also if not also fighting Japan. From over here could we have supported an Army capable of defeating Germany alone? I dunno.

3 Truman/Ike did ok. In May 45 did we have any atomic bombs? While I might have nuked Berlin in August 45 I doubt others would have approved. The Red Army was in position to fight in May and well that would have been interesting. Dunno if we could have won the air superiority battle quickly there.