--- Warren Ockrassa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Aug 25, 2004, at 6:33 PM, Dan Minette wrote: > > Further, to zeroth order, it was Stalin's USSR > that defeated the Nazis. > > In Russia, on land, sure. But it was US and UK > efforts that won the air > and sea battles.
As one Soviet general said to the other in Paris, "By the way, who won the air war?" (old, and bitter, army joke). The "sea battle" was relevant only to the extent that it allowed the US to supply Great Britain. Had the Germans won the battles on the land, this would have meant, nothing. The war in the air was of debatable importance in the outcome of the war (I think most historians give the impact of the strategic bombing campaigns too little credit for reasons that are not worth going into here) but for all that, it seems to me that the purpose of the air war was to allow the war on land to be won. I'm not sure I'd go as far as Dan's "Zeroth order" comment - given how closely balanced the Eastern Front was, it's my belief that without British and American support of the USSR it would have collapsed in either 1940 or 1941 - but certainly to first order it seems correct. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now. http://promotions.yahoo.com/goldrush _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
