Having read all the mails in the subject of the US breaking the Germans'
backs in WW2, I decided to get my hans on some real numbers.
From this reading I must conclude that overall the No. 1 contributor to
allied victory in the second world war is the Soviet Union. Not only does
its losses (and thereby sacrifices for world peace and freedom) exceed all
other countries on the list combined by a factor of 2-3, but even at its
weakest point, the Red Army fielded roughly twice as many divisions as the
US at its strongest point.
It should be noted that Soviet losses vary by different sites. The lowest
total I have seen was combined losses of 12-13 million lives. Military as
well as civilian. However even by this standard the Soviet Union sustained
twice as many casualties as any other nation (Germany : 5.69 million).
The last table in this mail could explain the myth of America being the most
powerful player in the war. In short it concludes that roughly ? of all
vehicles and planes of the second world war was produced by America.
However, one should bear in mind that the US was only bombed once during the
whole war (see bottom of mail for explanation).
Also I would say that the Soviet war production was only just getting
started for real by mid-1944 or so due to whole factories having to be
broken down, transported east and reassembled for them not fall in German
hands.
My conclusion:
- The US was by no means the strongest power in the war, nor did she
sacrifice the most lives.
- The US was stronger than any Western European power (save perhaps Germany
at its peak), however total US-losses don't even exceed those of the UK (of
course one could argue that this is due to superior tactics and strategies
put it doesn't really serve to belittle the sacrifices of the individuals
who died, in my humble opinion).
Related speculation:
One could argue that the US could simply have ignored the war and kept the
Japanese at bay, however two arguments rule against that decision:
1. The US economy could never have built itself up to this level without
Europe and Asia as trade partners.
2. No matter if the Soviet Union or Germany had won the war, the US would
have found itself engaged in Cold War against an opponent dominating the
entire Eurasian continent (including the middle-east which supplies the US
with so much of its vital oil). US influence on this continent would
probably be insignificant, and it is doubtful that a nation of 250 million
people would be able to create an army to cross the Atlantic or Pacific
ocean to defeat an X-billion-citizen nation (even if it was divided by
internal strife due to civil unrest or the like).
But of course this is just speculation.
My opinion:
- The only two powers who could realistically be expected to win the war are
the USA and The Soviet Union.
Of the two alternatives, I know which one I would prefer and it wouldn't be
the Soviet Union.
I hope I left nothing out :)
Some statistics:
Source: http://www.angelfire.com/ct/ww2europe/stats.html
WWII Death Count Per Country:
Country MilitaryCivilianTotal
USSR12 million 17 million 29 million
Germany 3.2 million 2.4 million 5.69 million
France 245,000 350,000 595,000
Italy 380,000 153,000 533,000
UK 403,000 92,700 495,000
USA 407,000 6,000 413,000
Number of divisions available for these countries over the course of the
war:
Country 1939194019411942194319441945End of War
France 86 105 0 0 5 7 14 14
Germany*78 189 235 261 327 347 319 375
UK 9 34 35 38 39 37 31 31
Italy 6 73 64 89 86 2 9 10
USSR194 200 220 250 350 400 488 491
USA** 8 24 39 76 95 94 94 94
*towards the end of the war, many of these divisions were either incomplete
or poorly equipped
**including both Army and Marine divisions and accounting for the Pacific
theater
Aircraft Available In Europe
DateBritish US Soviet German
June194295000 21003700
December194211,300 130038003400
June194312,700 500056004600
December194311,800 750088004700
June194413,200 11,800 14,700 4600
December194414,500 12,200 15,800 8500
Total Number Of Weapons During WWII
Weapon Type World USA US %
Aircraft542,000 283,000 52%
Vehicles5.1 million 2.47 million48%
(My own note: Bear in mind that there was only one incident when American
soil was bombed, namely when a Japanese submarine launched planed dropped
