On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 14:34 -0500, logic7 wrote:
> According to accounts from different areas of the world, we didn't enter the
> war until we were attacked. I've heard this from folks from several european
> countries. Our history books would have you believe that we were the heros
> of ww2, in fact the consensus seems to be that Russia had the biggest
> influencer in the war's outcome.
This is at least debatable.
1.
Russia had great internal problems and actually not anything worth to
be called an army at the beginning. Only later they herded all men
together who were able to hold a gun and treated them with Vodka and
drugs to let them storm the German strongholds. It was a totally
different way of wardare than the American way.
Russia would have gone down long before if there wasn't the US ships
sailing into Murmansk with all the goods Russia needed to survive.
Before USA joined the real action they supported the UK and Russia
with millions of tons of material. They even had a support group in
England before they actually joined the war.
The US was on the verge to stop those convoys because of the
increasing danger of the German submarines which acted like wolves in
a flock of sheep when they spotted a convoy on the Atlantic.
The combined pledges of the UK, Russia and the Jewish lobbyists in
congress and the growing public uproar about the German submarines
destroying US ships forced USA to join the war in the European
theatre.
2.
At the end of the war all allied forces would not have accomplished a
landing like on D-Day, not even the landing in Sicily without the US
troops. Ah, Sicily would not have been so easy without the local Mafia
striking a deal with the US, BTW.
American and Russian troops met in the east at a small river.
According to the history books it was the misunderstanding of the US
geographical department thet there were 2 rivers with similar names.
They chose the one which was far more to the west, being the reason
that a large chunk of land would have been part of West Germany later
which now belonged to the East part (until 1989). So the US troops had
to crawl back until they came to the other river the Oder-Neisse line
which later marked the Iron Curtain.
The US marched east and disregarded Berlin in their task to get as far
to the east as possible so to mark their area. Due to the geographical
glitch they had to march back AND lost Berlin to the Russians. A lot
of things would have been different in the time to come if those
soldiers had better studied their maps.
3.
The Russians gave Germany the first hard blow which was the beginning
of the end - the battle of Stalingrad.
So each side has it's merits in the outcome of WWII. But one thing is
for sure: Only all of them together could end it in due time. Maybe
that Russia or the USA would have been able to defeat Germany on their
own but it would have been a much longer ordeal for all sides.
There were no heroes in WWII on any side. Only dead and survivors.
As it is in every war that has been and that will be.
My heroes of that time were the people who stood up against the Nazis
and were murdered in Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and all the other
places of the unthinkable.
My heroes of that time were the people who supported the Jews to
escape or gave them a place to hide themselves. Those were the normal
German people.
An American movie director/producer told a great story which may have
changed the view of some US-Americans about the normal Germans. Movie is
named "Schindler's List" and tells a story that really happened.
wobo
--
If you don't understand or are scared by any of the above
ask your parents or an adult to help you.
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
