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. But it cannot be denied that the Americans sent us materiel 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. 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. In WW2, theres little doubt that Britain would have had to quit the war without lend-lease. I am not one of those Americans who enthusiastically embrace the "chestnuts out of the fire" myth. The consideration that the possibility of landings tying German forces before invasion comes to mind. In the case of WWII, considering the American aids which sustained the British war effort and the Soviet resistance without Americans, London and Moscow would have had to do well more and to pay a higher price to defeat Nazi Germany. 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. There would have been effects life in britain and russia would have been less plesent and food less plentiful. Had Germany been on an actual wartime economy from 1939 things could have been vastly different. All kinds of approaches exist for this topic, as well as all kinds of counter arguments to all kinds of propositions. In other words, Lend-Lease was stabilizing. After this proposal was rejected by the Poles, he could have demanded the return of merely Danzig and the Polish Corridor perhaps with some of the same assurances to the Poles offered by the German delegation at Versailles in 1919, namely to allow the Poles a road/rail corridor to the German port of Danzig just as he offered Poland in real life. Many experts have considered the US impossible to invade because of its major industries, reliable and fast supply lines, large geographical size, geographic location, population size, and difficult regional features. As noted, it dragged the Germans into campaigns that were unnecessary including in Greece and North Africa, and then when Benito Mussolini's government was toppled Germany was forced to occupy its former ally. And the US's wartime economy still had room to spool up even more. We'd really have had to fight them on the beaches & landing grounds, and the western front would have had to have been opened from Ireland. So we have US as a major factor in Western Front. After that point it was about who would end up with how much of Europe at the end of the war. Indeed, Polish leaders feared that had Hitler done this, then Britain and France would never have declared war on Germany. Nazi Germany had a powerful High Seas Fleet, but it was still really no match for the British Royal Navy and it never really could be. Could the Allies have won without US ww1? In the Western popular imagination -- particularly the American one -- World War II is a conflict we won. 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. Roosevelt had caved in to Churchills delaying tactics on the invasion before, and now all concerned, from Hopkins to Marshall to Leahy, were worried it might happen again. 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. Germany had the military potential to defeat France and could have likely forced Britain to make peace, but with a Navy less than one-sixth the size of Britains, it had no means of attacking U.S. territory, let alone defeating the U.S. military. Both sides would have complained. Much contention. I think one of the key questions is whether the RAF and the British naval forces would have been able to resist for so long the Luftwaffe and the Nazi marine forces without the resources and aid provided by the USA. 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. U.S. Neutrality The United States remained neutral at the beginning of the war. The thing that is certain that war would last even longer in that case, and cost many more lives. WebA 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. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war.". Myth: Japan could have won World War II, if only the Japanese had bombed the oil depots at Pearl Harbor in addition to the ships. Although World War I began in 1914, the United States did not join the war until 1917. The Great Debate | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans Here are some actions that Germany might have taken to achieve its territorial objectives without fighting the Western Powers. If Zhukov was able to destroy a veteran Japanese army in ~4 months in Khalkin Gol, they could easily hold them off with less divisions and resources. On April 23, 1947, this C-37 was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula. Would the US have entered WWII on the Nazi front if Germany got the UK to surrender after the blitzkrieg? JavaScript is disabled. The additional firepower, resources, and soldiers of the U.S. helped to tip the balance of the war in favor of the Allies. 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. Without Lend-Lease it would have been nearer. Whereas Japan would not benefit from the lack of resources and infrastructure in these areas. By Without US, Britain would still be able to prevent Germany from taking off to the seas. Germany's defeat came about from a number of much larger factors. Therefore they would still have to keep some forces there even if they could reduce them much more. WebWithout the Russian Front, Germany would have turned the beaches of Europe into an impenetrable fortress. He believes that World War One could have been prevented, if Archduke Franz Ferdinand had survived the assassins bullet. The allies won WW2 and the allies won the cold war. This, in turn, would have delayed the Soviet invasion of Finland until 1940. Various French Kings conducted some raids, the Spanish planned to use its Armada, the Dutch managed to at least burn some English warships in the Thames but even Napoleon never dared mount what would have been a futile invasion. Instead, the United States became the arsenal of democracy and Germany's defeat was all but assured. Opposing camps of historians generally agree on that, but little else when it comes to Ukraine war latest: Boy, 6, cries as sister killed in Russian attack Across Northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and into Northern Germany, 21st Army Group advanced on a front about 75 miles wide. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. 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. In addition, the Lend-Lease program propped up the Soviet railway system, which played a fundamental role in moving and supplying troops. "It should be remembered that during World War I, the transportation crisis in Russia in 1916-17 that did a lot to facilitate the February Revolution [which lead to the abdication of the tsar] was caused by a shortage in the production of railway rails, engines, and freight cars because industrial production had been diverted to munitions," Sokolov wrote. Kennedy says that most historians agree that American entry into World War I tipped the scales against Germany and that without the participation of the United States the Allies would have lost, defined as having to make a compromise peace with the Germans largely on German terms. Things werent going well for the. 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. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. Biggest Myths About Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Moscow Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, involved some 40,000 Red Army soldiers and nearly 1,900 military vehicles. "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. But Unfortunately, his offer was ignored by Allied leaders who proceeded to declare war the following day. The Lend-Lease act was enacted in March 1941 and authorized the United States to provide weapons, provisions, and raw materials to strategically important countries fighting Germany and Japan -- primarily, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China. Scan this QR code to download the app now. History Forum for World History - Historical Events, Historians, Archaeology, Ancient History, Modern History, Human History, History Books, Military History. The first installment of wartime Allied aid that reached the Soviet Union in 1942, although small by later standards, amounted to some 5 per cent of Soviet GNP in that year. Yet, the Germans lacked in numerous other ways. Given the way the events of the war played out, there was no other foreseeable outcome other than her defeat. Peace with Nazi Germany would have opened the door to a major Anglo-French military intervention in the Russo-Finnish War consisting of 150,000-300,000 troops, which might have enabled the Finns to hold out until spring 1941 when Operation Barbarossa beganif not retake lost territory. The same applies to their contribution in forcing the Germans to leave most heavy artillery in the Reich as anti-aircraft weapons, preventing them from being used as anti-tank weapons in the East. 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. Faced with these realities and incensed by the attack on Pearl Harbor, everyday Americans enthusiastically supported the war effort. The notion that Britain could have survived long term with the US's aid is total rubbish. Could we really have set up the production of our tanks without American steel? Siberia, is not even an option to consider. By the time lead-lease had produced any major change in the situation the decision to invade Russia and thus lose the war had already been taken in Berlin. You are using an out of date browser. Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo). Nikita Khrushchev offered the same opinion. 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. Won We gave the British dozens of surplus destroyers. The major effects would have been on the US. Though Germans would rightfully conclude that at that point a British invasion would not have much impact, therefore reduce their divisions in the West quite a lot. Although Allied aid was used directly to supply the armed forces with both durable goods and consumables, indirectly it probably released resources to households. The plane spent 69 years on the tundra before a Russian Geographical Society expedition rescued it in 2016 and returned the wreckage to Krasnoyarsk. 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. ), and France. In addition, almost half of all the rails used by the Soviet Union during the war came through Lend-Lease. Churchill kept working to delay/divert any landing in Western Europe: Roosevelt and Stalin Portrait of a Partnership. Did Spanish really brutally enslave and murder Native Americans, All US Needed To Beat Russia Was To Wait 10 Years, You Can Be a Billionaire Without Exploiting Others, Stress is Most Likely the Biggest Reason for the Obesity Epidemic. The Joint Chiefs of Staff anticipated trouble with Churchill. Nevertheless, British Lend-Lease tanks helped the Red Army to restock its tank units until domestic production could catch up and are estimated to have comprised about 10 per cent of the tanks defending Moscow in NovemberDecember 1941. What would have happened if the Allies lost ww1? Sure but this not what the OP specified so the answer remains yes the Allies could win without direct US involvement or even with the pre Lend-Lease levels of support if it happens early in the war. World War II Perhaps my original question should have been "What would have happened in WWII if there had been no Spam?". Malyshev encouraged the use of stamped parts and a cast turret in order to cut corners, accepting a certain temporary reduction in quality in return for much greater output of tanks. And as it happened in the real life, that means the fall of the entire German south flank in East and the loss of the Balkans. WebIf the US continued to send supplies to the Allies, then the Allies probably win, nothing else appearing. A wild card is whether the 1918 flu epidemic would have played out differently. Im not sure if Germany would have won but they might have ended up with more favorable terms or even just went back to their original borders. WebThe Big Three. On December 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan. 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). Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II - Wikipedia There is no denying that German industry was able to produce some very fine weapons and military equipment. The Americans provided vital explosives and gunpowder. Russian Federation Soviet Union WebBy the time the allies were pushing through Europe, the US had collected many victories in the pacific, the arena of carriers and planes. With Great Britain in the war it meant Germany was dragged into various side campaigns from Greece to North Africa. Isolation was no longer an option. Would the Allies have won ww2 without Sorry Soviet and British Nationalists: the USA economic, industrial and operational/tactical contributions were key: You know, that's the crux of the problem in all these discussions: practically. The Allies likely would have followed suit by making peace with Nazi Germany, too, thus ending World War II after a mere two weeks of fighting. And how much steel! Germany invaded France with more horses than Napoleon had used in 1812! 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. Individual Americans supported one side or the other, although the majority were sympathetic to the Allies. Historically, Germany already outproduced the USSR in certain areas like locomotives, trucks, and even bombers, with 12,664 produced by Germany in the years 19411943 as compared to 11,359 built by the USSR.170 Without Allied intervention and Lend-Lease, Soviet margins in these areas would most likely have widened, while margins in areas such as tanks would have shrunk significantly. It was really the only time Nazi Germany had actually declared war on an enemy, and it needed not to have happened. Asked by: Quincy Bins. WW2 Adolf Hitler joined a list of would-be invaders of the British Isles but clearly didn't remember that no one successfully invaded since 1066 when William the Conqueror defeated Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. 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. By the same token, the extraordinary pitch of mobilization achieved by the Soviet Union in 1942 and early 1943 was not sustainable. So, until 1944 summer, Soviets were practically alone in Europe. The lessons from the First World War should have been enough for Hitler and the German high command, but the decision to invade the Soviet Union in June 1941 when the British were still undefeated was a colossal blunder. While the United States quickly transitioned to a wartime economy that had companies like IBM making rifles instead of typewriters and GM making tanks instead of cars; Germany was producing consumer goods all the way until 1942 when Albert Speer took over as Minister of Armaments. Germany built no heavy bombers and lacked any truly effective long range aircraft. This might have led to the curious prospect of Nazi Germany, France and Britain fighting on the same side, however briefly, in a war against the Soviet Union. The war would have had a very different outcome, which could have led to a completely different world today. Of 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. Germany's defeat came about from a number of much larger factors. WebIn 1963, KGB monitoring recorded Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov saying: "People say that the allies didn't help us. WebFormer president Donald Trump, who is facing court action in the US, is set to arrive in Scotland later today. Japan had attacked the United States, so Germany was never required to join with its Axis partner. 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. In conclusion, if Germany won WW1, the German government would have been considerably more powerful and the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires would have lasted longer. Even with everything noted above, Germany and its European partners could have still won the war were it not for Germany's declaration of war on the United States on December 11, 1941. And now they are saying that we had plenty of everything on our own.". It would have been a negotiated armistice or a German victory. The problem is the flanks. This gave Poland the footing it needed to refuse all of Hitlers subsequent attempts to negotiate the return of this Polish occupied German city. Though, it is questionable how much of the soldiers from Germanys privileged classes would be shipped to Eastern Front in that case. Had Hitler not violated the Munich Pact and instead used a Four Power Conference to settle his claims to the Polish Corridor with Poland, then he might have been remembered as the most successful German Chancellor in German history (with the exception of Otto von Bismarck) for accomplishing the never-before realized dream of a united Germany. World War II in Europe was Germany and Italy, which was joined by Finland, Hungary, Romania, and to some extent Bulgaria. Therefore, US dealing with Japan definitely helped allies. Finland was only in the war to fight the Soviet Union, while the same was largely true of Romania and Hungary. BBC - History - World Wars: World War Two: How the Allies Won FranceWhich countries have won the most battles? With Britain gone, Hitler could have transferred more of his Panzer Divisions from France as well as the Afrika Corps. This Douglas is the only Lend-Lease aircraft that remains in Russia.". It had Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria on its side. 3 US as the major part of landings in Northern Africa, Italy and Europe. Not enough men. Why America Was Indispensable to the Allies Winning World War II Not to mention the "scorched earth" strategy which had already taken it's toll on the Germans. Without US help Britain would Would the Allies have won WWII if the USA had never entered the war? 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. Roosevelt also contributed to Soviet stabilization. US started the war with equipment rather sub par for European front (Tanks, Aircraft especially), and when first batches of these supplies arrived in USSR, they were already unusable in the main front except a few items and they were in small numbers. It was quite well equipped with 9,248 tanks, 6,584 artillery pieces and. Robert Coalson is a senior correspondent for RFE/RLwho covers Russia, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe. 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. The effect of such a negotiated settlement might have been a long-term peace for Europe, (with the exception of Hitlers plan to invade the Soviet Union of course), likely transforming both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy into mostly satisfied, rather than revisionist, powers generally supportive of maintaining the British-led world order. Overall, the Western Allies were responsible only for a small fraction of the losses sustained by German infantry and armor between 1941 and 1943 (around 10 percent); however, their contribution in the destruction and occupation of the Luftwaffe was overwhelming. 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. The lend-lease deal wasn't signed untill september 1940 and therefore didn't affect the decision to "pospone" sealion. On May 11, 1947, 27 people were rescued, having spent nearly three weeks in the icebound wreck. WebRelatives and friends have buried children and others killed in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Uman. 2 US taking on Japan and preventing them from attacking anyone else. 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. Does a neutral US still provide lend lease aid to both Britain and the USSR? Without landing craft another example of wrong equipment and lacking control of the skies of Great Britain, an invasion by Germany was simply impossible. Such assessments, however, are contradicted by the opinions of Soviet war participants. The United States and the British Commonwealth provided 55 percent of all the aluminum the Soviet Union used during the war and more than 80 percent of the copper. 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. Copyright 2023 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. Though after landing and adapting to Western Front warfare after a while US forces were the backbone of the effort in Western Front, by the time they started making advance into Germany the war was more or less considered over by many on both sides. For asking casual questions about History. without That proved to be fairly well matched against Russia, France, and Great Britain at least in the early stages of the war. What do you think would have happened if the US had not entered the war on the side of the Allies? Allies Won World War II The body of the captain, Maksim Tyurikov, was found by local hunters about 120 kilometers from the wreck in 1953. This included such small arms as the MG34, MG42 and the world's first "assault rifle," the StG44. All rights reserved. The railroads would have periodically come to a halt. The 76-year-old's private plane is expected to land at Aberdeen 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. If Hitler had accepted Czech President Emil Hachas request to make the Czech Republic a German protectorate without actually occupying it with German forces, then he would not have been in violation of the Munich Pact. This is the first in a series of five articles providing critical analysis as to how Germany Might Have Won World War II. Most famously, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin raised a toast to the Lend-Lease program at the November 1943 Tehran conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.
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