For anyone who cares

[LanDroid]

"...it behooves us to learn as much as possible, not as little."

I like it.... (Sorry GAE, 4 not 3.)

Not that Patriotic Americans care, but how many countries were involved in D-Day?

<font color="#CC6600" size="1">[ June 06, 2008 04:31 PM: Message edited by: LanDroid ]</font>

[Lew]

And don't get me wrong, as I've said on this board many times, as far as I'm concerned I rank Stalin as the worst human being of all-time (between he and Chairman Mao) and I would rank Hitler right behind them. I don't think Stalin himself deserves any lauding, but I do give credit to the Soviet people and what they had to go through. I would love to see a Soviet school book (especially one written in the 70s, when I was in school) and see its take on WWII (or as they call it, the Great Patriotic War).

I know one reason they felt they single-handedly won the war was because they lost the most people. Well that much is true, but the fact is that number is as high as it is because of the ineptness of their own leadership as much as the efficiency of the German war machine. Stalin's poor leadership basically cost millions of Soviet citizens and troops. And of course, it would be really interesting to read a Soviet textbook from the late 40s, by which time Stalin had been able to re-write things in such a way as he was their great saviour from the Nazi menace.

[Lew]

Actually, Lan, there were more Brits than Yanks at D-Day (more Americans might have gone ashore, but when you factor in the vessel crews and air support and what have you, there were more Brits). And Allied efforts included troops from Canada, France, and don't forget the French resistance on the mainland also played a significant role in helping spread disinformation to the Germans.

Just like in the Pacific war, we pretty much think of it as the IJN vs. the U.S. Navy. But naval vessels from Britain, Australia, and Holland also played a role. And the vast majority of the fighting done against the Japanese army on the mainland was done by British troops (India, Burma, etc.) with American air support.

No question, the U.S. did not, by any stretch of the imagination, win WWII by itself. However, I do think it's fair to submit that the Japanese would not have been defeated but for us. As I said, in Europe, it's a little harder to say because we don't know what would have happened had the Soviets been defeated in 1942. And again, I don't view it as an "American" war. It truly was a "world" war in every sense of the word, much moreso than "World" War I, which was primarily confined to the European continent.