[arthursmedley]

Originally Posted by lonewulf

I agree that generally speaking the most significant land engagements fought after 1940 occurred in the East. However, it would be a serious misreading of history to go on and argue that the Soviets are mainly responsible for the defeat of the Axis powers. In essence, without western aid the Soviet armies could not have pushed German forces out of Eastern Europe. Specifically the western allies (and mainly the US) supplied the soviets with over 240,000 trucks and lesser but highly significant quantities of aircraft and tanks as well as vast quantities of other war materials. The supply of western food stocks (SPAM) was crucial to the maintenance of viable soviet land forces up to and following the Battle of Stalingrad. And one shouldn't underestimate the contribution made by British and US land forces prior to the D Day landings in 1944. The campaigns in Italy, Tunisia and the Middle East took an enormous amount of pressure off the Soviets - as did the strategic air campaign over Germany, which the US joined in 1944. The German decision to break off the Kursk offensive, (which the Soviets claimed as a great victory) was largely due to the pressing need to transfer vital armoured units to Tunisia, where an allied success would threaten vital German oil supplies. Frankly, for anyone to even suggest that the Soviets might have defeated the Germans on their own is simply nonsense.

Laughable and you forgot the bit about the P51 winning the war too!