i have to disagree with the statement that the soviets won WW2 instead of the US.
YES they carried the battle to the germans but they did it in our equipment while eating our food and firing our bullets
The one thing they had was bodies.
Wiki claims 26 mil (civilian and military) deaths.
I agree with your rejection of that, Dakota.
That is Left Wing historical bunk.
In my opinion, Stalin helped cause World War 2.
In the 1930’s, Stalin allowed Hitler to secretly train German troops and test weapons on Soviet soil.
In the late 1930’s, Stalin attacked Finland, and made a complete hash of it.
What was Hitler's strategic conclusion about the Finland war?
The Soviet army was weak and incompetent!
In 1939, Stalin agreed to divide Poland with Hitler, and also signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler that ended the threat of a two front war.
In the spring of 1941, both Britain and America explicitly warned Stalin that Hitler was going to attack the Soviet Union.
Stalin did nothing, or worse than nothing when he concentrated large troop masses in several areas that were effortlessly flanked and surrounded by the Germans.
Once the War began, America's aid to the Soviets was extraordinary.....
250,000 of the best military trucks in the world.
5,000 of the best military cargo aircraft in the world.
15,000 jeeps, which gave junior combat officers access to every part of the battle field for the first time in Russia's history.
Russia's entire battle field telephone system was built in the USA.
Russia's entire short range field radio system was built in the USA.
In western Europe, America pinned down 25% of Hitler's best troops.
America's strategic bombing campaign pinned down 70% of Hitler's fighter aircraft, more than 10,000 anti-aircraft guns, and 90,000 gunners.
In the Pacific, the Japanese had 500,000 troops in Manchuria, which could have easily seized vast swaths of Siberia after Stalin moved his troops to the German front.
Instead, the Japanese were frozen in place by the American assault on the Japanese homeland.
Without USA assistance, the best Stalin could have hoped for was to fight the Germans to a stand still deep inside Russian territory.