Russia and the UK had far more to do with stopping Hitler then the US ever did. It's a historical point a lot of Americans don't remember well.
Yes, they did. 50 Million people died in the European theater alone (not including Japan and Asia ). 25 million of those were Russian/Soviet. And 12.5 million of the Russians that died were civilians. But Russia fought the war with a lot of equipment we sent them overseas with the Lend / Lease program. And when Hitler invaded Russia/USSR (Barbarossa), Germany was successful because the Soviets had lined up all their equipment in nice neat little rows preparing to invade the West. I wonder ...if Hitler had waited a few days and the USSR invaded first........is it possible that we may have aligned ourselves with Hitler instead of Stalin? History is funny that way.
Hitler is always vilified because he invaded Poland. But in history class they always fail to mention that after it was invaded, Germany took one half of Poland and the Soviets took the Southern half. Ever heard of the Katyn Massacre ? After Germany invaded and the Soviets took their piece of Poland, they told all the remaining Polish military officers to 'meet here' and we'll discuss what we can do about the Germans. Then, Soviet/Russian soldiers jumped off trucks, surrounded them and proceeded to kill 22,000 Polish soldiers and civic leaders. They did it in one day. They killed them because they were not communist. It did not matter if they were anti German. If they were anti communist, pro democracy or enemies of the state ( businessmen, priests, journalists etc..) they died.
The Soviets did a good job fighting from Moscow to Berlin. One of the top 3-5 generals of the war was Zukov. He was amazing if you read about him. But while the Russians were fighting from Moscow to Berlin... the Brits and the U.S. were fighting in Western Europe, Africa, Southern Europe, the Pacific and Asia. In 1943, at the height of the war; something ridiculous like 90 percent of our Federal budget went to the war effort. We were giving as much as we could give.
The Brits did an excellent job in WW2. But I would not put the Russians on a pedestal. They sound good on paper, but I would not have wanted to be in their Army. If you have some time read
After the Reich or
A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous. A Woman in Berlin details the personal experiences of a woman during the first 30 days or so after the war ended and the Russians occupied the city. 95 percent of all the females were raped, from infants to the elderly. And 95 percent is not an exaggeration. History doesn't tell you that 10 percent of all the women in Berlin committed suicide within 90 days after the war was over.
After the Reich covers the last 90 days of WW2 up to about 1950 or so. It was not pretty. The Russians raped women all the way from Moscow to Berlin and murdered the men and civilians if they were not communist. They imprisoned hundreds of thousands of German men, took them to the USSR and used them as slave labor. Most of them never returned. In Czech, they rounded up 5,000 ethnic Germans (after the war was over) with the pretense of telling them 'what was going to happen now '......they met in a football stadium. After they were assembled, the Soviets and communist soldiers entered the stadium. gunned them down and threw hand grenades in the crowd.... killing men, women and children. It's an excellent read if you have an interest in WW2.
I could go on and on......the Soviets won, but they aren't hero's. I wouldn't put them on a pedestal.
Check out this link for war material production. It was amazing what was achieved.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre.org
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT7nRjHxX8i8A23hXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Poland+Ww2+Russian+Massacre&fr=yfp-t-828989,333
