Quote:
Originally Posted by Dutch_851
As far as I can recall, the US became actively involved in WW2 only after Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and Hitler declared war on the US.
This was in December 1941 and so was quite a significant length of time after the Battle of Britain.
There was a bit more to it than simply 'coming to our Grand Daddy's aid'.
After all, we'd been fighting since Sept 1939. The USAAF were involved from 1942.
Britain couldn't have mounted the D-Day invasion and subsequent Second Front in 1944 without the involvement of the US. Also the Materiel provided by lend-lease, and the loan of cash to fund the necessary war machine mostly came from the US.
Had the US not become involved, either financially or in actual participation, the prospect then was either that Germany would beat Russia, and all Europe would be Nazi, or Russia would beat Germany, and all Europe would be Communist. Stalin would have then been knocking at our door.
Horrible prospects either way.
BTW, can we please not get involved in such mud-slinging matches and personal attacks? Everyone's entitled to their views. Both Hunden and Andy I mean. Thanks.
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Yep, Dutch, we were late for the first one, late for the second one, and will probably be late for the third one. I say third one because, if you will recall, the first one was to be the war that ended all wars
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Americans often think that they won WWI and WWII. Especially WWII. We mainly see depictions of our own soldiers in movies and books so our view can get skewed. It's not arrogance, it's a lack of knowledge of history (our education system is the pits, especially in terms of history).
In looking back, it's apparent to me that either WW would not have been won without the US, but the US could not have won either war single handedly by a long shot. Both times we abandoned Europe to their own devices. Both times we were far from being "armed" enough to go to war in a serious way. Both times our troops and weapons were too few at the beginning but we were able to spool up our manufacturing (which we can't do anymore, btw).
It's important for Americans to realize that while they were absolutely needed, they were only a cog in the wheel of victory.
Splitter