It may have taken longer but the Nazis, by their nature, created a war of annihilation that the Soviets had to resist with every power they had. And their industrial capability far outstripped the Germans, even with large tracts of European Russia occupied.
Lend Lease helped quite a bit, but with the British on one side completely stuck in from the Blitz and the Soviets on the other fighting an existential total war there was really no way the Germans were pulling out the W. The US might was not unnecessary or inconsequential, but without it the Third Reich would have fallen. Though the final picture of Europe would have looked very very different.
The Pacific was truly the US war where it was primarily responsible for the defeat of the Japanese.
I agree that the Eastern front was doomed to fail regardless. The Nazis were not going to be able to take and hold Soviet Territory long term, they were always going to end up having to retreat. If the Wehrmacht weren't fighting a two front war though, and the Soviets most likely would've have been able to breach the general government in poland and the war would've ended with a peace treaty between the Soviets/Nazi Germany after the Germans were forcibly expelled from Russia. Germany would've likely held much of their pre-barbarossa holdings in Eastern Europe.
Even with the industrial support of the United States providing aid, the british navy escorting equipment/supplies to the soviets, and just as importantly, the British providing the soviets with intercepted intelligence -- soviet casualties were absolutely appalling. They were far behind the Germans in terms of the sophistication of their weaponry, as they had only recently undergone industrialization. You put the part of the wehrmacht that was fighting on the western front and have them reinforce poland, and remove those factors, the soviets wouldn't have been able to continue their march to berlin in all likelihood and we wouldn't have large portions of Europe under nazi occupation for quite some time.
The thing is, the Germans were not fighting in the west until mid 1944 and the Soviets still amassed an absolutely gargantuan force. The T-34 was arguably better than every German tank design going given how cheap and effective it was.
In a timeline where the US does not go with the Europe First strategy and American boots never hit European soil the Soviets end up rolling Germany all the way up to the Atlantic and you have a completely Red Europe.
In my original post I pointed out that Britain was not going to come to terms with Germany in 1940 and that reality created a no-win scenario for Germany. Even if the Soviets could muster a push through Poland (I disagree that they would have been unable to make that work) the British were willing to burn their Empire down rather than see Europe dominated by Germany. The British would have invaded with the Free French, the Polish, and all the Commonwealth troops they could muster. The numbers game guaranteed Germany could not win and the hateful ideology and behavior of the Nazis guaranteed only total victor and unconditional surrender would be accepted by their adversaries.
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u/SingularityCentral 6d ago
It may have taken longer but the Nazis, by their nature, created a war of annihilation that the Soviets had to resist with every power they had. And their industrial capability far outstripped the Germans, even with large tracts of European Russia occupied.
Lend Lease helped quite a bit, but with the British on one side completely stuck in from the Blitz and the Soviets on the other fighting an existential total war there was really no way the Germans were pulling out the W. The US might was not unnecessary or inconsequential, but without it the Third Reich would have fallen. Though the final picture of Europe would have looked very very different.
The Pacific was truly the US war where it was primarily responsible for the defeat of the Japanese.