That proved to be fairly well matched against Russia, France, and Great Britain at least in the early stages of the war. Rather, the consequence of lend-lease was to virtually bankrupt this country and lead to the collapse in our manufacturing base, whilst the Marshall Plan created one of the strongest economies in the world - who got the short straw? Perhaps my original question should have been "What would have happened in WWII if there had been no Spam?". During World War II the Soviet Union received large amounts of aid from the Western world in the form of supplies and military intervention, both of which were declared to have been irrelevant for the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany by Soviet historians. Hitler could have accepted Britains generous offer and scheduled the conference for late 1938 or early 1939 rather than foolishly violating the Munich Pact in March 1939. Victory for the Allies was never guaranteed, and historians agree there were countless ways Germany could have won the war. WebOf course, the easiest way Germany could have won World War II was by avoiding a fight with Britain, France, and the United States of America. Overall Soviet armour losses in 1942 were 62 per cent of those tanks built which was less than the German build: loss rate and indicated that the Red Army could absorb huge losses in material. Their aircraft carriers are mostly converted from civilian ships during interwar years. WebIn 1941-2 we started to lose shipping to U boats faster than we could build them so we would eventually have brought to starvation without the US Liberty ships. Normandy and the Bocage around it could be considered bloody battles, with Allies moving inch by inch. Franz Ferdinand was the strongest spokesman for peace in Austria-Hungary. No doubt the historical conditions of America's economic surge during World War II were singular. This series of events also would have almost certainly led to a German-Polish alliance against the Soviets that Hitler had long sought for as the Poles would have had no choice but to ally with Nazi Germany if they had any hopes of ever regaining the two-thirds of their territory which had been annexed by the Soviets under the terms of the original Hitler-Stalin Pact. Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo). It may not display this or other websites correctly. Britain, and probably France as well, would have likely pressured the Poles to accept such a reasonable compromise proposal and informed them they would not support Poland militarily if Poland rejected it just as they told Czech leaders after Munich. The outcome could have been quite different. And the US's wartime economy still had room to spool up even more. Would the US have entered WWII on the Nazi front if Germany got the UK to surrender after the blitzkrieg? By September 1944, we see Allies only coming to German border: The disproportionate advance of Allies in Western Front in the late stages of the war compared to the advance in Eastern Front after this point is due to German staff trying to prevent a Soviet takeover of entire Germany, and preferring an occupation by the other Allies. Lend-Lease also sent aviation fuel equivalent to 57 percent of what the Soviet Union itself produced. On December 7, 1941, the U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces that would push the U.S. into entering WWII. This was the final blow to Japanese war effort and broke the camels back, by the way. Both sides would have complained. World War II in Europe was Germany and Italy, which was joined by Finland, Hungary, Romania, and to some extent Bulgaria. Anyways, while I think you might just have a stalemate, especially if the war drags on, in order to win the Allies might have to at least get more US materiel. Geographic feasibility. Without US, Britain would still be able to prevent Germany from taking off to the seas. The highlight of the event was the lowering of the captured German standards, which were flung down in front of Lenin's Tomb to be trampled by Soviet marshals riding white horses. But it would Then there was the fact that its Axis partner, Imperial Japan, didn't join in fighting the Soviet Union. We would have lost North Africa and the far east. This naturally means that though lack of such supplies like radios and vehicles like trucks would be detrimental, they would not have been critical. In World War II, the Allies outfought the Axis on land, in the air, and at sea. Most Russians believe the Soviet military would have been able to win World War II without the efforts of the U.S. or its allies, a After the war, it was transferred to civilian aviation, carrying passengers over the frozen tundra above the Arctic Circle. Which still means the answer to the OP is yes, the Allies could win. But right before the Normandy landings, this region (France, Atlantic Wall) was still considered a holiday region by German army, and sons, relatives of notables, party figures were sent there rather than Eastern Front as one old BBC documentary so bluntly put it. "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war," he wrote in his memoirs. Germany invaded France with more horses than Napoleon had used in 1812! British Matilda tanks are loaded onto a ship for transportation to the U.S.S.R. as part of the Lend-Lease program. When landings become inevitable, he diverts the landings to Italy, calling it soft underbelly of Axis. Although World War I began in 1914, the United States did not join the war until 1917. Dont Violate the Munich Pact by Occupying the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. This article examines the claim made by Soviet historiography, and it comes to the conclusion that both Western supplies and military intervention were far more helpful than claimed by the Soviets. Though this indeed tied some German forces, the forces were not anything which could be compared to what was being thrown to Eastern Front, with one notable panzer group being stationed ner Pas de Calais (Hitlers folly), and most of the preparation taking the form of elaborate fortifications that were called Atlantic Wall prepared mainly by Rommel. Germany had the military Would an America isolationist enough to deny the UK Lend-Lease have been isolationist enough to grant Hitler the monies that he used to build his Army and Navy. The Poles would likely have accepted their peace offer after the Soviets invaded Poland on September 17 in order to defend Poland from the all-out Soviet invasion and planned Soviet annexation of nearly two-thirds of Polish territory under the original Hitler-Stalin Pact. These freed up Soviet resources to concentrate on combat vehicle production. My British born-American raised Mother has told me that my British born-Britsh raised Aunt Bethel always claimed that "Spam saved England" ---because it was ration free. In addition, almost half of all the rails used by the Soviet Union during the war came through Lend-Lease. The British didn't have enough troops? However, it is likely he would have invaded all of those nations at some point during the 1940s regardless of what Hitler did or did not do since his massive expansion of the Red Army was completed by June 1941, by which time the Soviet Union boasted seven times as many tanks and four times as many combat aircraft as Nazi Germany. What were strength estimates of German forces in Budapest and Munich? If Germany developed the right aircraft the war could have turned out differently, but another factor was its industry. This isnt to say the U.S. won the war on its own. "Without Lend-Lease, the Red Army would not have had about one-third of its ammunition, half of its aircraft, or half of its tanks. It was really the only time Nazi Germany had actually declared war on an enemy, and it needed not to have happened. In contrast, people in Eastern Front were ordered to die where they stood. Then there is the fact that Germany lacked the winter clothing for its Army during that first terrible Soviet winter. The root cause of world war II is industrial and imperialist circles in the west fostering and backing fascist movements, When we look into the reality on the ground circa the time period when Operation Sea Lion was supposed to, Without demeaning the sacrifice of those who fought in the ranks of the British, lets do a simple review: In. Siberia, is not even an option to consider. Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. Eventually, those nations got out of the fight and in the case of Romania joined with the Soviets against the Hungarians. But the Soviet Union was never alone: Months before the United States formally entered the war, it had already begun providing massive military and economic assistance to its Soviet ally through the Lend-Lease program. More than 20,000 Katyusha mobile multiple-rocket launchers were mounted on the chassis of American Studebaker trucks. But when examined by looking past all these ideological and social biases and historical baggage, one faces a rather unconventional conclusion: A quick look at the strategic setup, relative war production and technology level of countries seems to suggest that Ww2 could have been won without United States. In regard to combat balance, we see many disasters in Western Front as well. The impact of the United States joining the war was significant. Also see r/History or r/AskHistorians. Considering all the above information, it is reasonable to conclude that the war could be won without participation of US, or even Lend Lease, but it would cost much more lives and take much longer, and affect broader segments of world population. Overcoming massive defeats and colossal losses over the first 18 months of the war, the Red Army was able to reorganize and rebuild to form a juggernaut that marched all the way to Berlin. By improving the balance of overall resources it brought about a ceteris paribus increase in the payoff to patriotic citizens. Much of the American fuel was added to lower-grade Soviet fuel to produce the high-octane fuel needed by modern military aircraft. We had lost our grain-producing areas". By June 1944, Soviets were already positioning for their drive into Germany, as can be seen from the state of Eastern Front at that date: Just a month after Normandy, Red Army was already pushing into Germany. In early 1915, Germany introduced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic. A wild card is whether the 1918 flu epidemic would have played out differently. The Soviet Union suffered the most casualties in the conflict, and the issue is highly emotional for many Russians. After Hitler became increasingly sidelined, this became a blunt policy, as you would see from the personal stories of relatives of (German) Quorans in regard to the late stages of war, and how many of them were ferried back to West so that they could surrender to the other Allies. So in World War One, I think fresh American troops helped change the outcome. Even with everything noted above, Germany and its European partners could have still won the war were it not for Germanys declaration of war on the United States on December 11, 1941. [Total: 0 Average: 0] Without the backing of American weaponry, munitions and loans, the Allies would have been forced to abandon their goal of the knockout blow. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. Afterwards, he sent troops to occupy the Czech Republic on May 15, 1939 in flagrant violation of the terms of Munich Pact. On: July 7, 2022. It is also possibleand perhaps even likelythat without the promise of Allied military support, Poland would have agreed to cede the rest of West Prussia and perhaps even East Upper Silesia, but not Posen, to Nazi Germany in order to avoid war. When World War II started, America was isolationist and the Soviet Union collaborationist. The exhausted Allies would have had to negotiate some kind of settlement with Central Power forces occupying almost all of what is now Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic republics in the east; most of Romania and Yugoslavia in Southern Europe, as well as a bit of Italy; and almost all of Belgium and most of northeast, 5 Reasons the United States Entered World War One. The additional firepower, resources, and soldiers of the U.S. helped to tip the balance of the war in favor of the Allies. Britain still would have prevailed. Germanys resumption of submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships in 1917 became the primary motivation behind Wilsons decision to lead the United States into World War I. Yet, here again is a case of the wrong equipment. These territorial claims included the entire Istrian peninsula and northern Dalmatian coast and adjacent islands in the Adriatic Sea as well as a protectorate over Albania, all of which ended up being annexedfollowing the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. WebRelatives and friends have buried children and others killed in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Uman. the first thing to point out is that those who think the UK would have colapsed and been invaded are just wrong. Unfortunately, his offer was ignored by Allied leaders who proceeded to declare war the following day. Most visibly, the United States provided the Soviet Union with more than 400,000 jeeps and trucks, 14,000 aircraft, 8,000 tractors and construction vehicles, and 13,000 battle tanks. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Without U.S. entry, there would have no Versailles Treaty, termed a diktat by Hitler, who used it to arouse Germany against the Weimar Republic and Wilsons League of Nations. 2 US taking on Japan and preventing them from attacking anyone else. W. Without the need to fight in the Atlantic; to transport large amounts of troops, equipment, and supplies across the entire continent; and the necessity to defend against Allied bombing, Germany could have massively reduced its U-boat, locomotive, and anti-aircraft gun and ammunition production and converted at least part of these capacities into the production of more aircraft and equipment for land warfare. without L-L the Soviets certainly cannot become the juggernaut they did towards the end of WWII, and might have abandoned large parts of the country west of the Urals when they were invaded. A monument in Fairbanks, Alaska, to the American pilots who flew almost 8,000 U.S. planes to Alaska and to the Soviet pilots who flew them on to Siberia as part of Lend-Lease. Most Russians believe the Soviet military would have been able to win World War II without the efforts of the U.S. or its allies, a new poll finds. Historically 21st Army Group had the English Channel/North Sea on one flank and the Americans on the other flank. So even though Japan could easily cripple British presence in SE Asia easily with its Navy (they mostly did that already), it is rather difficult to imagine Japan subduing India which would turn into another China for Japan. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war.". "During World War II, only the supplies brought in by Lend-Lease prevented the paralysis of rail transport in the Soviet Union.". Yes Lend-Lease was vital, In order to ensure that tank production goals were met by Soviet industry, Stalin made Vyacheslav Malyshev, an engineer who had proven himself in the expansion of Soviet heavy industry in the 1930s, head of the Peoples Commissariat of the Tank Industry of the USSR (NKTP) that was established on 11 September. He could have requested the return of all of Germanys lost eastern territories from Poland. The railroads would have periodically come to a halt. He motivated factory managers by reminding them what happened to people who didnt meet Stalins quotas and pointedly said, I am responsible for the tanks with my head. While Soviet efforts to mobilize labour and industrial resources were prodigious, it should be noted that the rapid expansion of Soviet tank production would have been handicapped without the delivery of Lend-Lease raw materials and machine tools to replace equipment lost in the hasty evacuations. It was really the only time Nazi Germany had actually declared war on an enemy, and it needed not to have happened. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. During 1942, the Red Army lost over 15,000 tanks, including 1,200 KV-1, 6,600 T-34s and 7,200 T-60/70s.100 About half of the 10,500 Lend-Lease tanks (3,000 British, 7,500 USA) delivered in 1942 were also lost.101 Soviet industry built 24,231 tanks in 1942, including 12,535 T-34s and 2,426 KV-1s. Also the liberty ships were built mainly for the US government and weren't in full production until late 42 (after the u-boats had been beaten by bletchly park). On April 23, 1947, it was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula. In addition, much of the $31 billion worth of aid sent to the United Kingdom was also passed on to the Soviet Union via convoys through the Barents Sea to Murmansk. I suspect the worse that would have happened immediately would have been an emergency relocation to Canada by the government if a Nazi invasion had taken place and been successful. At the end of the war, the disparage was far greater Soviets ran over all the elite crack troops Japanese crammed into Manchuria and trusted quite a lot, and they ran over them in justonemonth. I assume that since Overlord hasn't happened that most or at least many of the German troops garrisoning France are available to be redeployed to Munich, Budapest, or anywhere else the Germans care to send them. It was quite well equipped with 9,248 tanks, 6,584 artillery pieces and. The Short History Of The Great Patriotic War, also from 1948, acknowledged the Lend-Lease shipments, but concluded: "Overall this assistance was not significant enough to in any way exert a decisive influence over the course of the Great Patriotic War. Rommel had scarce manpower and supplies at his disposal, yet he made good use of what he had, and Britain succeeded in stopping Germans only with amassing of massive resources and manpower in firstFirst Battle of El Alamein. After that point it was about who would end up with how much of Europe at the end of the war. After the fall of France in June In all, the United States shipped $50 billion ($608 billion in 2020 money) worth of materiel under the program, including $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union. Therefore when we look at the presence of US forces in Western Front, we see them delayed by Churchill to almost until the end of the war, and wasted in much bloody, irrelevant and peripheral battles in Italy. It is a little known fact that Hitler passed up a huge opportunity to satisfy his few remaining territorial demands after the signing of the Munich Pact for the return of the free German city of Danzig and/or the Polish Corridor along with some former German colonies in Africa and the Pacific without the need for war between Germany and Poland, let alone between Germany and the United Kingdom and France. It was a great symbol of prestige for the resurgent Kriegsmarine, but the money and material could have been utilized in a larger U-Boat force. However, I have serious doubts that the Germans would have been able to win the war had the USA stay neutral. From there, it flew 5,650 kilometers to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, one of some 14,000 aircraft sent by the United States to the Soviet Union during World War II under the massive Lend-Lease program. Italy was a reliable partner but its army was neither prepared nor even eager for war. WebWithout the Russian Front, Germany would have turned the beaches of Europe into an impenetrable fortress. A Soviet report by Politburo member Nikolai Voznesensky in 1948 asserted that the United States, described as "the head of the antidemocratic camp and the warrior of imperialist expansion around the world," contributed materiel during the war that amounted to just 4.8 percent of the Soviet Union's own wartime production. But it would also take longer and cost more loss of lives. Especially considering that the route from NW China/Korea to Soviet heartland passes through never ending Central Asian steppes. WWII- Whenever driven from Libya in defeat, would Axis forces have always retreated to & occupied Tunisia? Given the way the events of the war played out, there was no other foreseeable outcome other than her defeat. The war might have ended in 1915 or 1916 with a negotiated peace Would the Allies have won WWII if the USA had never entered the war? Without landing craft another example of wrong equipment and lacking control of the skies of Great Britain, an invasion by Germany was simply impossible. One look at the map of southern Europe easily tells even people with non-military education that there is nothing soft about that location at all Italy is hilly, rough terrain, and where Italy connects to Europe is even worse impassable Alps totally clog the north, and beyond Alps there are many more difficult obstacles like Black Forest, or Yugoslavian hilly countryside. Japan had attacked the United States, so Germany was never required to join with its Axis partner. Thus, landings in 1944 came at a point at which Soviets broke German armies and were racing towards Berlin. Responding to President Franklin D. US lost five major wars after 1945 However, the US was unable to get any significant victory in its wars abroad. U.S. Neutrality The United States remained neutral at the beginning of the war. 3 US as the major part of landings in Northern Africa, Italy and Europe. without the US sending in Millions of troops and supplying material I dont see an Entente victory. Poland would most likely have joined in the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union in exchange for promises for Germanys support for the return of these lost territories. More from the necessity of preventing a total Soviet takeover of Europe, coupled by the promises FDR gave years ago, than any initiative or lack of malice on the part of Churchill. Germany built no heavy bombers and lacked any truly effective long range aircraft. For asking casual questions about History. JavaScript is disabled. American aid also provided 4.5 million tons of food, 1.5 million blankets, and 15 million pairs of boots. That bogged down the men and material that could have been used in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Lend-Lease trucks and jeeps put the Russian Army on wheels for the first time ever while US food (including, famously, spam)kept the Russian population going. The captain, two crew members, and six passengers had left earlier in an ill-fated effort to get help. The Allies alone could not possibly have defeated Germany. Not enough men. America fought five major wars after 1945 including Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan in addition to some minor wars in Somalia, Yemen, and Libya. Under Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. Defeat never came down to one battle or one campaign. The Germans were not equipped or experienced in conducting a sea-borne invasion, and even if the RAF had been neutralised their high command was scared stiff of the overwhelming naval advantage that the Royal Navy had in home waters. On May 11, 1947, 27 people were rescued, having spent nearly three weeks in the icebound wreck. However, if Germany had limited itself to liberating the Polish occupied German city of Danzig and invading the Polish Corridor, which represented the full extent of his territorial claims on Poland, and which it captured in the first four days of fighting, then Hitler could have requested an armistice from Polish leaders on September 5.
