Quote:
Originally Posted by PIMking
Canada along with Australia and the kiwis were in the war from the beginning because they were under the crown.
The Americans tried to stay out of the war until they possibly couldn't. The Second World War for the yanks was bad, but they were never pushed off continental Europe either.....
Wwi was Wierd and if it wasn't for the Zimmerman telegram I don't know if the Americans would have ever joined the war.
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Well yeah, I understand that, but it doesn't change the facts that the majority of the allies fought bravely for many years before the US decided to get their feet wet.
In fact, Canada lost 5% of it's total population to WW1! 10% of it's male population. Can you imagine that! If I recall, it was the biggest per capita loss of either war, besides Australia's WW1 loss.
Historically Canada got a lot of the toughest assignments too, part because they were the poor cousins in the world order, and partly because they were eager to prove themselves and show the world they were a 'nation'. Some of the battles they won in WW1, including Vimy, gave them much respect even among the Germans and Hitler himself in WW2. Ran into some stories of that when researching the Vimy Ridge Memorial.
It's not like the world doesn't know the US won (or at least sped up the victory immensely, as Germany made a really big mistake stretching into Russia when they did) WW2 in Europe for it's allies. It's not like the world isn't thankful for that.
It's just very maddening and sad to hear people, who typically know nothing about the history of the wars other than nazi's and the bombs, (not saying all American's know nothing, just saying the ones who often brag the most, often know the least) continually brag about saving the world from evil when other countries also made huge contributions, and the Americans watched a lot of their allies fight for years before they even got involved. Not to mention the real issues of profiting while others were fighting the good fight. And that's generally where a lot of those comments about the French come from. Or equally ignorant comments about the Canadian military.