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Comment by shatnersbassoon | Hacker News Reader

> the US fighting was negligible.

This is either ignorant or dishonest. Just because the US wasn't insanely profligate with lives, doesn't mean they didn't make a huge contribution to defeating Germany. Multiple German armies were defeated by the Western allies in Africa, Italy, France, the low countries and subsequently Germany. Germany's war production was crippled by USAAF and RAF bombing, and its transport was almost totally destroyed. Perhaps most importantly, Germany's ability to fuel its vehicles was removed by the bombing campaign. Literally thousands of 88mm guns were kept in the Reich because of the bombing, and these would have been on the Eastern front shredding Russians otherwise. Without this contribution, the USSR could at best have reached a stalemate. Anyone who denies this has an agenda.

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Africa was never a major theater. Landing in the Normandy was in 44 (?). The war was lost in 42.

For starters: http://www.fallen.io/ww2/

Start at 4:45

Like I said, the number of deaths is not a good measure of contribution towards actual defeat. Sending punishment battalions to die in their hundreds of thousands was a Soviet choice, and not a good one. Allowing millions of men to be encircled in 1941 was Soviet incompetence. Likewise, sending men into battle unarmed was Soviet callousness.

Africa absolutely was a major theatre. The defeat of the Axis in Libya and Tunisia removed their dominance over the mediterranean, and allowed the Suez canal trade routes a level of safety and ultimately ensured allied economic dominance. Russia would not have received the same level of economic support if it was not clear.

The Germans had not lost the war in 1942. A less despotic leader could have strategically retreated 500 miles and stabilised after Stalingrad.

Also, if you're uncertain about the year when the landings in Normandy took place, perhaps your overall grasp on events is less than perfect?

What was Suez canal role in economic support of Russia? Most of Lend-lease convoys were routed via Pacific and Arctic.

9 out of 10 German soldiers died in the East...

And the US leaders used the metric of more dead Vietnamese than Americans as proof they were winning the war. They literally created the term “The McNamara Fallacy” because it’s a poor metric of success.

Then you seem to know more than most military historians about WW2. Impressive!

I made no claims about WW2. My claim is that you can’t distill a complex system like war into an overly simplistic formula like “more dead = win”. There are system effects that distort this, particularly with asymmetric warfare.

As an aside, snark is discouraged on HN. Your account is new, son of encourage you to take a look at the guidelines for posting if you haven’t already.

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