Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
Lets not forget that if we're being honest with ourselves, it was the Russians that won the European WW2.
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Maybe, the Russian offensive and destruction of the key German armies had a great effect on the European battles, but you could also argue that British and later American air power was just as large of a factor, and the fact that Hitler was forced to pull a lot of his veteran units out of Russia to defend fortress Europe in Italy and Western Europe.
Saying that the Russian's won the European war is over simplification.
You could in theory say that crippling diarrhea and parasites won the war in Russia for the Russians, and the crippling cold, and autumn mud and Hitlers stupidity at splitting his army into three.
The Russians' fought a great second half of the war aided by an American engineer that gave them the transmission for the T-34 tank, but the allies opening multiple fronts and the D-Day and post D-Day invasion had a significant effect on the Russian invasion.
On even turf with better Luftwaffe support and not using sub par German Allied troops to protect Germany's flanks in Stalingrad and I think General Paulus blunts Zhukov's encirclement at Stalingrad and saves his army in place.
The difference between Germany finishing off Russia and Russia finishing off Germany was pretty slight.