‘We did save you. Without Lend Lease, you’d be speaking German today. Without direct American intervention, hundreds of thousands of additional Brits would have died in that war, either in defeat or in retaking North Africa and continental Europe. And that’s just WWII. Without American intervention in WWI, hundreds of thousands of additional British servicemen would have died and the war might have ended in a defeat rather than a victory. The only occasions on which British troops have fought in proximity with American troops in which American sovereignty was in jeopardy were during the War of Independence and the War of 1812.’
No you didnt.
Firstly, Britain was safe by late 1940. We had won the BoB and had slowly turned the tide in the Atlantic. We werent and would not have been strong enough to re-invade Europe, N Africa and the Med without American and Canadian troops and support, but that dosent mean you saved us or that we would have been defeated.
The Germans could only have defeated us in summer 1940. And they failed. At worst, the British would sans America have been in a stalemate with Germany and Italy, certainly Germany (the UK could have still knocked Italy out of the war as it did in N Africa in 1940-41 and crippled the Italian Navy in 1940).
Britain couldnt have won the war without America and Canada (who were actually our biggest supplier of arms and material btw, not America). And the Commonwealth and Empire.
Without the US-Canadian armies, we couldnt have solely taken on and defeated the Nazis and Italians, Vichy French and the Japs. Also of course the huge USSR contribution which kept 75% of all Germans away from the West....
BUT America couldnt have won the war without the British. Without our (then still) huge resources, manpower and material and those of Canada, India, NZ, SA, Australia.
American troops would never have landed in Europe or N Africa without the Royal Navy. And the RAF.
79% of all ships on D-Day were British, as was 50% of all air cover.
In fact without the predominately British-Canadian victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, US troops would never have crossed the sea....
And where would America have been without the British nuclear secrets OR the British codebreakers?. Or the many British technological breakthroughs (Colossus, Bailey Bridge, PLUTO, the Mulberry Harbours etc etc)?......
So the idea that America saved us is pure fiction. And insulting.
Secondly, you are clearly unaware of ‘reverse lend lease’, where Britain GAVE America £1.2B (thats $12b) in arms and material from Jan 1942 to Sept 1945. A lend lease thats been forgotten.
You also make the huge mistake of assuming the British relied on lend lease for our military strength.....LL didnt build the Spitfire, Hurricane, all the great RN ships, all the British tanks of ww2, the Bren gun, the Sten........if you think we couldnt have built our arsenal without LL, you are wrong.
Thirdly, you are utterly utterly wrong on WW1. American troops didnt fight in large numbers until April/May 1918, and an American army didnt undertake a solo major offensive until SEPTEMBER 1918, at St Mihiel.
It was the British (along with French and Australian and Canadian troops) who took the brunt of the German counterattack in Easter 1918 (the ‘kaiserschlact’). And it was the BRITISH who bore the brunt of what became known as the ‘Hundred Day Offensive’ in the summer of 1918, that drove the Germans back to the German border. Frankly the Canadian and AUSTRALIAN units in 1918 did as much, if not more, to drive the Germans back.
And in ww1, half of all US troops carried across the Atlantic were carried by the Royal Navy. And ALL US troops taken from England to France were carried by the RN.
And the AEF in 1917-18 relied entirely on British and French tanks, airplanes and artillery pieces. And all US combat training in France was given by British and French officers and trainers.
The American contribution to WW1 and to 1918 and final victory, although helpful and brave, has been grossly exaggerated.
It was the British who won the Western Front in 1918. And I am not saying that because I am British. Its because its the truth.
Frankly, you really need to learn your British/Commonwealth WW1/WW2 history. Your ‘facts’ and assumptions are at best faulty and at worst simply nonsense.
Finally, we owe you thanks and respect for the brave American men who died 1917-18 and 1941-45. Nothing else.
Again, you miss the basic point, which is that neither WWI nor WWII (in Europe) was our war - we participated for sentimental reasons despite foreknowledge of the massive casualties we would incur. If we hadn’t jumped in we wouldn’t have lost 400K men. British contributions to allied campaigns with the US since WWII have involved less than 2,000 dead, from Korea through Iraq. 400K is a lot more than 2K. You yourself have said that you could have done without American intervention. Without that intervention, that 400K dead would have been British dead. It’s that simple.
Again, in war, the coin of gratitude isn’t words, and definitely not insults - it’s human sacrifice of the kind we contributed towards Britain’s wars. And in those terms, the UK is a long way from repaying the debts incurred within living memory.