Quote from trefoil:
I don't agree with you much but on this you're correct.
Two things were at work here:
1 - Eisenhower vetoed Patton's plan to surround and cut off the German forces in the Battle of the Bulge, which would have allowed the Western Allies to go straight to Berlin with nothing to stop them. Instead he forced a push head on. This is pure speculation on my part, but I think it was because he didn't want any German to think, as they did after WWI, that they could have somehow won. I think he wanted to grind them up so there was no question who lost.
2 - The USSR lost a huge number of men, way more than the West. Of course, a large part of the blame for this lies with Stalin's betrayal of everyone with his non-aggression pact with Hitler. Also, it was the Americans who supplied them with the logistical equipment - Ford trucks - they needed to beat Hitler, their own railroads having been largely destroyed by the Germans. Not to mention fighting Japan in the Pacific, allowing the USSR to concentrate on the Germans. We and the British fought in Europe and Asia, while the USSR fought strictly in Europe until close to the end. Still, they could and did argue, successfully, that they be allowed to get to Berlin first as a result of the losses they had taken. It was pure politics, not at all a result of military facts on the ground.