it marvels me how we did it, fom the desparate depths of dunkirk to get so much done in such a short time? just over 5 years, from biplanes to jetplanes, the change in agriculture in that time was also just as mirarkable ? What do others think from todays perspective ? One last question did we actually win the war ? not me i wasnt even born, but my father was a child during the war, and did his national service in germany in the early 1950s, he was always telling us that even then germany was doing far better than the UK ?
How the hell did we ever win the war?
- Thread starter bluebell
- Start date
- Location
- Hereford
We won the war but Germany has crapped on us ever since
Aided by France
Aided by France
M-J-G
Member
They still are IMO, a very well run country.
Don't forget that the Americans saved our asses.
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
Simple, US factories made the stuff, and the Russians died in their millions.
The UK's main contribution was to keep the war going long enough from the fall of France in May 1940 to late 1941 so that when the Japanese attacked Pearl harbour the European war was still going on, and the USA could still join in. Had we given up post Battle of Britain and made a peace at some point in early 1941, Germany could have concentrated 100% on Russia, and probably beaten them too. As it was all the theatres of operations that the UK kept alive singlehandedly meant that just enough German resources were diverted from Operation Barbarossa and it failed, by very narrow margins. Post 1942 we played our part, but compared to the US and Soviet contributions it was a minor role really.
The UK's main contribution was to keep the war going long enough from the fall of France in May 1940 to late 1941 so that when the Japanese attacked Pearl harbour the European war was still going on, and the USA could still join in. Had we given up post Battle of Britain and made a peace at some point in early 1941, Germany could have concentrated 100% on Russia, and probably beaten them too. As it was all the theatres of operations that the UK kept alive singlehandedly meant that just enough German resources were diverted from Operation Barbarossa and it failed, by very narrow margins. Post 1942 we played our part, but compared to the US and Soviet contributions it was a minor role really.
Fish
Member
- Location
- North yorkshire
As said^ the Americans and Russians won the war, we just had the odd walk on part.
- Location
- West Somerset
I for one, am very grateful to the British soldiers who fort and gave their lives to give us the freedom we have today!!
Don't think they considered it as a walk on part!
Don't think they considered it as a walk on part!
Absolutely
toquark
Member
They are, but I believe this was part of their downfall during WW2. I'm speaking in very general terms here, but the Germanic culture is geared towards at taking orders and carrying out instructions, this makes them far superior manufacturers and engineers and why I believe they've managed to retain their industrial base when most other western countries have lost theirs. However, thinking outside the box doesn't come naturally to many, they don't tend to question the orthodox or think laterally, which in the sphere of war strategy, isn't a virtue.
- Location
- S. Staffs
Don’t forget that it was our input in the ruins of Germany that got their car industry and other manufacturing back up and running, to the detriment of our own imo.
- Location
- Boroughbridge, york
What about convoy patrols, beltchley park, the navy keeping axis forces largely bottled up, keeping hitler from the middle east oil, keeping the med navigable with help from the good people of Malta.so much more.
Yes US and russian factories and lives won through, but we did much more than suggested
Some in here have become a little bbc, ashamed to be british
Yes US and russian factories and lives won through, but we did much more than suggested
Some in here have become a little bbc, ashamed to be british
farmerm
Member
- Location
- Shropshire
Remember never has so much been owned by so many to so few! Wishing to take nothing away from those of ours who fought at died our nation was only only one cog in a much larger war machine. The second world war was won the war on the back of American industrial might and millions of Russian lives. The UK played its part but we did not win the war alone by any stretch of the imagination. But what prompts the question? Do you hear the Chinese asking how did they ever loose in war to little old Japan?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Its still 2 nil to us, and we now lead the way with EU exits.
GeorgeK
Member
- Location
- Leicestershire
I don't pick people up on spelling but I love this "mirarkable." That's going down in the book.
In terms of technological advancements Germany was hardly lacking. V2 rocket technology that America used to put man on the moon. The first jet aircraft. The first precision bomb, the radio guided Fritz X. All borne of Hitler's obsession with super weapons but this came at a price, they were resource intensive to produce thereby limiting numbers and not always reliable. The Tiger tank was a feat of engineering but ultimately less effective than the mass produced T34.
Different era, different class of politicians.
Don't forget that the Allies wanted to atone for the Treaty Of Versailles that crippled post WW1 Germany with punitive war reparations. Those reparations created the power vacuum that Hitler was able to step into. In effect, the Allies created WW2 in Europe.
The Septics didn’t turn up until after half time.
Farfrae
Member
- Location
- Pontargothi, Carmarthenshire
Of course the myth is that the plucky Brits won the war whilst in reality it was those pesky Soviets that were the deciding factor.
Starting in 1941, the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine and played perhaps the most important role in the Allies' defeat of Hitler. By one calculation, for every single American soldier killed fighting the Germans, 80 Soviet soldiers died doing the same.
The Red Army was "the main engine of Nazism’s destruction," writes British historian and journalist Max Hastings in "Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945." The Soviet Union paid the harshest price: though the numbers are not exact, an estimated 26 million Soviet citizens died during World War II, including as many as 11 million soldiers. At the same time, the Germans suffered three-quarters of their wartime losses fighting the Red Army.
"It was the Western Allies’ extreme good fortune that the Russians, and not themselves, paid almost the entire ‘butcher’s bill’ for defeating Nazi Germany, accepting 95 per cent of the military casualties of the three major powers of the Grand Alliance," writes Hastings.