But when World War II has considered it is really Germany and Japan against most of the world. Accept British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlains offer of a second Four-Power Conference. Thats assuming they were able to make advances. Despite the self-professed role of the US as the guardian of freedom, democracy, human rights and the world order, and the huge sums of money it spends on its military, it has never led a successful campaign to achieve the goals it set for itself. ww1 - the British had mastered combined arms warfare and the Allies would have won but been willing to cut a less one-sided deal to bring it to an end. But it would also take longer and cost more loss of lives. This gave Poland the footing it needed to refuse all of Hitlers subsequent attempts to negotiate the return of this Polish occupied German city. Also see r/History or r/AskHistorians. It was really the only time Nazi Germany had actually declared war on an enemy, and it needed not to have happened. Their aircraft carriers are mostly converted from civilian ships during interwar years. The Lusitania. What would NOT have happened would have been an invasion of the UK. Would the Allies have won WWII if the USA had never entered the war? Especially considering that the route from NW China/Korea to Soviet heartland passes through never ending Central Asian steppes. From the depths of the Cold War to the present day, many Soviet and Russian politicians have ignored or downplayed the impact of American assistance to the Soviets, as well as the impact of the entire U.S.-British war against the Nazis. The lessons from the First World War should have been enough for Hitler and the German high command, but the decision to invade the Soviet Union in June 1941 when the British were still undefeated was a colossal blunder. Individual Americans supported one side or the other, although the majority were sympathetic to the Allies. Faced with these realities and incensed by the attack on Pearl Harbor, everyday Americans enthusiastically supported the war effort. Instead of the four Allied powers the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union then standing together in a final Allied Victory Parade in a defeated Berlin in September 1944, the Germans could have celebrated the defeat of the British, marching through London and Moscow as they did Paris. Yet, here again is a case of the wrong equipment. In World War II, the three great Allied powersGreat Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Unionformed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory. At the same time, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini could have made demands for France and Britain to honor their promises to Italy for more Yugoslav territory in return for entering World War One on the side of the Allies. WebRelatives and friends have buried children and others killed in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Uman. While the Japanese did draw away British resources to the Far East, which included the Commonwealth forces of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Indian Army, this really didn't benefit the Germans all that much. "I knew that its place was in a museum," Vyacheslav Filippov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force reserve who has written extensively about the Lend-Lease program's Siberian connection, told RFE/RL at the time. This proved crucial in the Blitzkrieg against the Low Countries and France. Theres rather broad agreement among mainstream historians on this. WebIn the summer of 1945, Japans war leaders knew they were not going to win World War II. It had Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria on its side. Italy and Japan never posed the same kind of threat as the European superpower they fought alongside. So even though Japan could easily cripple British presence in SE Asia easily with its Navy (they mostly did that already), it is rather difficult to imagine Japan subduing India which would turn into another China for Japan. Historically, Germany already outproduced the USSR in certain areas like locomotives, trucks, and even bombers, with 12,664 produced by Germany in the years 19411943 as compared to 11,359 built by the USSR.170 Without Allied intervention and Lend-Lease, Soviet margins in these areas would most likely have widened, while margins in areas such as tanks would have shrunk significantly. He believed that a war with Russia would lead to the downfall of both empires.. I suspect the worse that would have happened immediately would have been an emergency relocation to Canada by the government if a Nazi invasion had taken place and been successful. Unfortunately, his offer was ignored by Allied leaders who proceeded to declare war the following day. If we consider Lend Lease never happened, these resources would need to be spent by USSR, and hence hamper war machinery production. Had Hitler not violated the Munich Pact and instead used a Four Power Conference to settle his claims to the Polish Corridor with Poland, then he might have been remembered as the most successful German Chancellor in German history (with the exception of Otto von Bismarck) for accomplishing the never-before realized dream of a united Germany. The major effects would have been on the US. In the Western popular imagination -- particularly the American one -- World War II is a conflict we won. Not enough men. The lend-lease deal wasn't signed untill september 1940 and therefore didn't affect the decision to "pospone" sealion. From the late spring to early fall of 1945 Europe saw several large "Victory Parades" that celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the Second World War. While the United States quickly transitioned to a wartime economy that had companies like IBM making rifles instead of typewriters and GM making tanks instead of cars; Germany was producing consumer goods all the way until 1942 when Albert Speer took over as Minister of Armaments. Sure but this not what the OP specified so the answer remains yes the Allies could win without direct US involvement or even with the pre Lend-Lease levels of support if it happens early in the war. Had Hitlers claims against Poland been negotiated peacefully, not only would he have succeeded in averting the outbreak of war with Poland and the Western Allies, but he would not have felt the need to sign the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939 carving up eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Therefore, the prospects for an Allied victory after the Fall of France without the US are indeed very grim. "During World War II, only the supplies brought in by Lend-Lease prevented the paralysis of rail transport in the Soviet Union.". How behind Japan was in regard to war production and technology, we see in 1939 in Khalkin Gol, where Zhukov had devastated a sizable Japanese army during the course of ~4 months. 117,000The armies of the Central Powers mobilised 25 million soldiers and 3.5 million of them died.World War 1 casualties. The reason why Churchill was doing this, is because he wanted USSR to be destroyed by Germany, or at least let them bleed each other out, as the common advocacy was in early years of war among British and US industrialists or Anglo-centrists. 'We Would Have Lost': Did U.S. Lend-Lease Aid Tip The Balance In Soviet Fight Against Nazi Germany? In the case of WWII, considering the American aids which sustained the British war effort and the Soviet resistance without Americans, London and Moscow would have had to do well more and to pay a higher price to defeat Nazi Germany. Overall Soviet armour losses in 1942 were 62 per cent of those tanks built which was less than the German build: loss rate and indicated that the Red Army could absorb huge losses in material. Spam saved the Soviet Union? This, in turn, would have delayed the Soviet invasion of Finland until 1940. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. There is no plausible reason to believe that Romania wouldn't change sides once Red Army was at its borders. When we look at the situation in Western Front, we see Germans not sweating much to stall Allies after Normandy. Neither the Allied Powers (France, Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and several smaller states) nor the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria) would have gained everything they wanted from a negotiated settlement. ", In 1963, KGB monitoring recorded Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov saying: "People say that the allies didn't help us. That neatly sums it up. Without U.S. entry, there would have no Versailles Treaty, termed a diktat by Hitler, who used it to arouse Germany against the Weimar Republic and Wilsons League of Nations. WebIf the US continued to send supplies to the Allies, then the Allies probably win, nothing else appearing. The program sent nearly 2,000 locomotives and innumerable boxcars to the Soviet Union. The only viable route seems to be towards the West from Northern Italy, from a narrow region towards France. JavaScript is disabled. Under Lend-Lease, the United States provided more than one-third of all the explosives used by the Soviet Union during the war. We gave the British dozens of surplus destroyers. Considering all the above information, it is reasonable to conclude that the war could be won without participation of US, or even Lend Lease, but it would cost much more lives and take much longer, and affect broader segments of world population. It is hard to overestimate the negative impact Hitlers foolhardy violation of the Munich Pact had upon Chamberlain. A Japanese attack on the Soviet Union, on the other hand, would have put Josef Stalin in the very difficult situation of also fighting a two-front war. Then there was the fact that its Axis partner, Imperial Japan, didn't join in fighting the Soviet Union. Plausibility check: could a better handled Italy have become France's partner in enforcing the Versailles treaty? But when examined by looking past all these ideological and social biases and historical baggage, one faces a rather unconventional conclusion: A quick look at the strategic setup, relative war production and technology level of countries seems to suggest that Ww2 could have been won without United States. The Allies alone could not possibly have defeated Germany. Defeat never came down to one battle or one campaign. After the war, it was transferred to civilian aviation, carrying passengers over the frozen tundra above the Arctic Circle. WebA quick look at the strategic setup, relative war production and technology level of countries seems to suggest that Ww2 could have been won without United States. Again I asked myself the question would the Allied powers had won without US involvement. My British born-American raised Mother has told me that my British born-Britsh raised Aunt Bethel always claimed that "Spam saved England" ---because it was ration free. Additionally, without bombing, and the need to maintain a large enough army to fight on several fronts, there would have been less need to use forced labor in the factories, thus boosting production. The effect of such a negotiated settlement might have been a long-term peace for Europe, (with the exception of Hitlers plan to invade the Soviet Union of course), likely transforming both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy into mostly satisfied, rather than revisionist, powers generally supportive of maintaining the British-led world order. Does a neutral US still provide lend lease aid to both Britain and the USSR? Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war.". Though, it is questionable how much of the soldiers from Germanys privileged classes would be shipped to Eastern Front in that case. I think one of the key questions is whether the RAF and the British naval forces would have been able to resist for so long the Luftwaffe and the Nazi marine forces without the resources and aid provided by the USA. There would have been effects life in britain and russia would have been less plesent and food less plentiful. In WW2, theres little doubt that Britain would have had to quit the war without lend-lease. Overall, the Western Allies were responsible only for a small fraction of the losses sustained by German infantry and armor between 1941 and 1943 (around 10 percent); however, their contribution in the destruction and occupation of the Luftwaffe was overwhelming. WebFact: Adolf Hitler Could Have Won World War II As we celebrate the ending of the war 75 years ago, know this: victory for the Allies was never guaranteed, and historians agree Germany had to deal with resistance and partisan efforts, and as the tide of war turned its "allies" left the fight. Rather, the consequence of lend-lease was to virtually bankrupt this country and lead to the collapse in our manufacturing base, whilst the Marshall Plan created one of the strongest economies in the world - who got the short straw? It is no exaggeration to say that America won the war abroad and the peace at home at the same time. Thus, landings in 1944 came at a point at which Soviets broke German armies and were racing towards Berlin. In conclusion, if Germany won WW1, the German government would have been considerably more powerful and the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires would have lasted longer. Most Russians believe the Soviet military would have been able to win World War II without the efforts of the U.S. or its allies, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Churchills delaying tactics took the form of pressing for a continued push to divert troops to capture the Dodecanese islands in the Mediterranean and mount diversionary battles in Italy. Only Occupy the Polish Corridor, Not All of Western Poland. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act on March 11, 1941. After the defeat of Imperial Russia, which came as the result of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the German Army was able to move vast quantities of men to the western front and launched a final offensive in the spring of 1918. This included such small arms as the MG34, MG42 and the world's first "assault rifle," the StG44. Here are some actions that Germany might have taken to achieve its territorial objectives without fighting the Western Powers. September 1 marked the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, which cost the lives of an estimated fifty to sixty million people and was the most terrible war in world history. The railroads would have periodically come to a halt. Germanys resumption of submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships in 1917 became the primary motivation behind Wilsons decision to lead the United States into World War I. This abrupt reversal in policy ended up triggering a world war which would cost over fifty million lives. This isnt to say the U.S. won the war on its own. "In a hypothetical battle one-on-one between the U.S.S.R and Germany, without the help of Lend-Lease and without the diversion of significant forces of the Luftwaffe and the German Navy and the diversion of more than one-quarter of its land forces in the fight against Britain and the United States, Stalin could hardly have beaten Hitler," Sokolov wrote in an essay for RFE/RL's Russian Service. Germany had the military Archived post. In addition, the Lend-Lease program propped up the Soviet railway system, which played a fundamental role in moving and supplying troops. And how much steel! During 1942, the Red Army lost over 15,000 tanks, including 1,200 KV-1, 6,600 T-34s and 7,200 T-60/70s.100 About half of the 10,500 Lend-Lease tanks (3,000 British, 7,500 USA) delivered in 1942 were also lost.101 Soviet industry built 24,231 tanks in 1942, including 12,535 T-34s and 2,426 KV-1s. Why did Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria ally with Germany in WWII and what impact did they have? And not surprisingly, not only the few German forces which took over Italys defense from Italian armies defended all of Italy easily and a lot of lives were lost in hilly Italian countryside, but also even at the end of the war the forces in Italy were not able to move out of soft underbelly of Axis towards French hinterland, leave aside Germany. The root cause of world war II is industrial and imperialist circles in the west fostering and backing fascist movements, When we look into the reality on the ground circa the time period when Operation Sea Lion was supposed to, Without demeaning the sacrifice of those who fought in the ranks of the British, lets do a simple review: In. In early 1915, Germany introduced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic. By the time lead-lease had produced any major change in the situation the decision to invade Russia and thus lose the war had already been taken in Berlin. The Americans provided vital explosives and gunpowder. Would Russia have won ww2 without the US? This is the first in a series of five articles providing critical analysis as to how Germany Might Have Won World War II. Whereas Japan would not benefit from the lack of resources and infrastructure in these areas. His intended purpose of this second conference would have been to redress Germanys remaining legitimate grievances stemming from the unjust Treaty of Versailles and thereby secure a more just and lasting peace to avert the potential outbreak of World War II. British Matilda tanks are loaded onto a ship for transportation to the U.S.S.R. as part of the Lend-Lease program. That bogged down the men and material that could have been used in the invasion of the Soviet Union. The impact of the United States joining the war was significant. This Douglas is the only Lend-Lease aircraft that remains in Russia.".