• '12

    The uranium ore was produced in Canada.  I’m not sure that Canada supplied many or any of the top tier theoretical physicists but doubtless many mid-level and lots of engineering types were involved.  True, many brit brains at top levels were involved.  I would suggest the contribution of Alan Turing in cracking the enigma machine probably was a greater contribution to winning the war, seeings as the A-bomb was in response to a german threat and came a bit late for use there.

    Theory is all fine but it did take enormous resources and long term industrial development/investment which only the US could have done.


  • Ugh more Canada junk? seriously? No The UK and the USSR could and would have survived without the US assistance

  • '12

    Somebody implied or asked if the a-bomb production could have been moved to Canada.  My suggestion perhaps was a but too nuianced.  Basically I said Canada had ZERO high level contribution and MERELY supplied the ore and some technicians.  If this is bragging in your mind I would suggest your country has rather modest achievements.

  • '12

    By the way, I did not mean to imply Alan Turing was Canadian.  He was Brit, so again, the ‘bragging canuck’ points out how a foreign nations contribution were key, how arrogant….


  • The U.S help in Europe allowed for a secend front. Had the U.S not got involved the U.S.S.R would have ‘liberated’ all of Western Europe. This would have caused a situation that would have led to a 3rd World War.


  • @ABWorsham:

    The U.S help in Europe allowed for a secend front. Had the U.S not got involved the U.S.S.R would have ‘liberated’ all of Western Europe. This would have caused a situation that would have led to a 3rd World War.

    Would it of led to world war 3 though? its quite the interesting scenario. Post 1945 Communism conquered a large part of Asia, including China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cambodia as well as Stalin’s aquisitions in Eastern Euripe and that didnt cause WW3 so i’m not really sure that the U.S would of got involved especially given the possibility of facing off on two fronts against both in the Pacific and Europe. Most likely the islationist policies would of continued as well as the anti- communist operations in Latin America, but beyond that I dont think they would of been willing to commit they’re entire armed forces for something that for the majority wasnt their war.


  • If the Americans would have intervened before the end of 1941, the second world war would have been less long.

    Probably that there would have been less death.
    Then, the Americans did not save the world!
    In fact, the hesitation of the US government caused the death of million human beings.

  • '12

    Its a bit hard on the Americans to lay and blame for them not doing anything to stop WW II.  They actually did, wildrow Wilson (sp) was against the treaty of versailles which the French and Brits forced on the Germans.  It is often said WW II started the day that treaty was signed.  Nobody did much to promote democracy in Germany post WW I which they did get for awhile.  Remember, Hitler was elected…… reichstag fire rally cry notwithstanding

    Had the Brits and French done something in 36 I believe when Hitler re-occupied the ruhr valley it would have been game over for the Nazis.  The Americans came to the rescue of the european colonialist once in WW I.  Many americans believed if the europeans didn’t learn their lesson then a pox on both their houses.


  • @MrMalachiCrunch:

    Its a bit hard on the Americans to lay and blame for them not doing anything to stop WW II.  They actually did, wildrow Wilson (sp) was against the treaty of versailles which the French and Brits forced on the Germans.  It is often said WW II started the day that treaty was signed.  Nobody did much to promote democracy in Germany post WW I which they did get for awhile.  Remember, Hitler was elected…… reichstag fire rally cry notwithstanding

    Had the Brits and French done something in 36 I believe when Hitler re-occupied the ruhr valley it would have been game over for the Nazis.  The Americans came to the rescue of the european colonialist once in WW I.  Many americans believed if the europeans didn’t learn their lesson then a pox on both their houses.

    I thought Wilson signed but Congress failed to ratify it.

  • '12

    Wilson never proposed war-reparations from Germany and was against it.  It was the French who pushed for it.  The brits wanted Germany relatively strong but not too strong to act as a bastion against the communist threat from russia.  Most of the war was fought on French soil, naturally they suffered the most and wanted some compensation including lost industrial lands lost to the prussians in the latter half of the 1800s.

    Wilson wanted and proposed the league of nations, the Senate (I don’t believe congress gets involved in foreign affairs if I understand the US political structure correctly) thought this would bring the US into another war so voted not to ratify the treaty of versailles but rather signed a seperate peace accord with Germany.  Because the Germans felt they never really lost the first war and it was a conspiricy of poor leadership along with the humiliating treaty of versailles that let the allies basically plunder germany and ruin its economy thus making it ripe for a strongman to make promises of a better world.


  • @MrMalachiCrunch:

    Wilson never proposed war-reparations from Germany and was against it.  It was the French who pushed for it.  The brits wanted Germany relatively strong but not too strong to act as a bastion against the communist threat from russia.  Most of the war was fought on French soil, naturally they suffered the most and wanted some compensation including lost industrial lands lost to the prussians in the latter half of the 1800s.

    Wilson wanted and proposed the league of nations, the Senate (I don’t believe congress gets involved in foreign affairs if I understand the US political structure correctly) thought this would bring the US into another war so voted not to ratify the treaty of versailles but rather signed a seperate peace accord with Germany.  Because the Germans felt they never really lost the first war and it was a conspiricy of poor leadership along with the humiliating treaty of versailles that let the allies basically plunder germany and ruin its economy thus making it ripe for a strongman to make promises of a better world.

    The Senate is part of the Congress, along with the House of Representatives. It is the Congress’s job to declare war and ratify all treaties


  • I think UK would have trouble on assaults like D-Day and Italian Campaign.


  • @Dylan:

    I think UK would have trouble on assaults like D-Day and Italian Campaign.

    1942 Dieppe Raid

  • '12

    Actually, congress does not ratify treaties, the senate does.  And with the treaty of versailles, it was the senate that did not ratify it, congress had no part in it.  Oddly, congress has the power to declare war but not sign treaties.

    1956 Suez crisis should be advertised to the muslim world as an example of American standing up for a muslim nation agasint the French,Brits and Israel nations.


  • @MrMalachiCrunch:

    Actually, congress does not ratify treaties, the senate does.  And with the treaty of versailles, it was the senate that did not ratify it, congress had no part in it.  Oddly, congress has the power to declare war but not sign treaties.

    1956 Suez crisis should be advertised to the muslim world as an example of American standing up for a muslim nation agasint the French,Brits and Israel nations.

    The Senate is part of the Congress

  • '12

    Hmmm, well, normally when people I know say congress, they mean the body of people who get elected every 2 years.  When people I know say senators, they mean those 2 people every state get in the body called the senate.  Call it what you want, but that body that has 100 folks 2 from every state, its those people who ratify treaties.  That other body that has over 400 folks who run for election every 2 years, them people don’t vote on treaties but deal mostly with budget.  But me being a Canadian, maybe Obama was a congressman along with Hillary and John mcaain, but I was pretty sure they were called senators.


  • Americans are underappreciated.

    If anyone claims we didn’t do our share of anything since the US Civil War, I would like to know who you hold as an example that did more.

    Yes, like your countries, our country has internal politics that sometimes delay us getting involved in implementing a sound solution, but I would like to know if you consider our participation or involvement the most egregious worth noting.  If not, more might be accomplished by addressing a noteworthy problem instead.


  • I have no doubt the the USSR would have survived without US aid.  The USSR did what they needed to in order to win the war.  The worst case I can imagine would be a fixed front on the Urals, but Germany did not have the manpower to hold such a vast territory as the USSR.  The German offensive would have stalled at some point regardless and this was considered by the Axis planners (all of whom suggested stopping at the A-A line or at the Urals).

    It is questionable if, without US aid, the German blockade and the vast sums of money being spent on the war effort, if the UK would have survived 1940 and 41.  I would suggest that without the money and equipment (lend-lease) being provided to the UK they would have been forced to sue for peace to avoid starvation.  While the 50 destroyers were WWI vintage, they were more than adequate to combat Germanys main threat of submarines sinking cargo ships, and had considerable value to the UK.


  • I must disagree with you Baker Street. You said yourself that the UK likely would not have survived (or would at least be severely weakened) without US support before the US officially joined the war. Even if Germany was unable to invade Great Britain (and it is likely that they would not be able to do so) they could successfully blockade GB long enough to force a Cease-Fire or even a peace treaty. This would have freed up much German industry to be used to attack the USSR rather than to defend the Atlantic against Britain.

    It is true that by 1941 Soviet industry had reversed itself and was much more effective in producing war materials, however against Germany’s full industrial power they would not be able to hold out and would have been pushed back at least to the Urals.

    On a side note, without the United States to aid the British and participate in North Africa, Italy (with the help of Germany’s Afrika Korps) would have eventually ousted the British from Egypt and taken the oil fields in Persia, which also would have had a detrimental effect on the Allies’ war effort.

  • '12

    The british were doing fairly well in North africa by the time the US joined in and started getting spanked in Africa in order to learn the lesson the other allies had already learned.  The americans had this really annoying habit of ignoring the lessons learned by the other allies and required a bit of a bloody nose in algeria to take things seriously.

    Hey don’t get me wrong, the allies really appreciated the american help.  Nothing like fighting nazis for 27 months by yourself to really appreciate some help.  Now as for those 50 WW I era destroyers being the do all and be all of the nazi defeat in the atlantic……  Ummm I beg to differ.  Yes, they helped more than nothing, much more than nothing, but it was a minor token effort in the big scheme.  The situation in the atlantic was really bad and much of it was due to stupid british arrogance in not being serious about military codes.  It was so bad in the atlantic the Canadians were smashed in convoy duty.  It got so bad the Canadians had to give up escorting atlantic convoys for awhile because we were getting slaughtered.  Yeah, not something we like to brag about but the war was neary lost in the north atlantic.  It was not until Alan turing and bleatchly (sp) park cracked the enigima that the war in the atlantic and hence THE war turned.

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