Why Did the Allies Win World War II?

Class Discussion: Why Did the Allies Win World War II? (pages 936-937)

Through a combination of willpower, perseverance, material resources’, and the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union working together as an alliance, an allied victory was made possible in World War II.  More specifically, they were able to defeat “what had been the strongest military power in the world”. With how strong Nazi Germany was, no allied force could have triumphed alone. During the war, Germany and Japan had no involvement with each other. While Japan fought the United States and allies in the pacific, Germany relished in the support they received from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Italy. However, these nations did not have the same resources and industrial strength as the United States did. While Italian soldiers still rode horses to battle in 1942, the Russians swarmed the battlefields in tanks. Even though the Soviet and United States had different views regarding communism and capitalist democracies, they shared one goal, to defeat the Nazis, and more specifically, Hitler. With this shared goal and focus on the European theater, the United States devoted 85% of its war efforts towards Germany, and only 15% towards Japan. This alliance between the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States, consisted of three major factors that contributed to Allied victory, starting with the materials the United States provided throughout the war to Britain and the Soviet Union, the D Day invasion and British and American bombing campaigns, and the Soviet Unions “Red Army`s” success in driving the German armies back to Berlin after stopping their eastward advance in Stalingrad. The materials provided by the United States during the war had the biggest influence in making the allied victory possible since they produced two thirds of the allies’ military equipment.  After converting the American auto industry`s to war production, the United States continued shipping millions of tons of supplies to Britain and kept stockpiling equipment for D Day. Meanwhile, The United States provided the Soviet Union with over half a million of their military`s vehicles, supplied food such as “Spam”, and supplied 90 percent of the Allies high octane gasoline. However, the British and United States bombing campaigns in Western Europe made it possible for allied forces to control the skies and “served as a crucial second-front surrogate until D Day”. Nevertheless, the bombing campaign also diverted German antiaircraft weapons and aircraft toward defending their cities, and reduced the production of airplanes, trucks, and tanks. By the time it was D Day, 12,000 improved allied fighter planes went against just 300 Nazi warplanes in the west, while 13,000 Soviet Union planes went against only 500 German war aircraft in the east. Even though both casualties were very high, the allied air forces contributed to the Soviets battle on the eastern front tremendously. As a result, the Soviet Union`s interception of the Germans advance in the east contributed greatly to the outcome of the Allied victory. With over 4 million of Stalin`s army perished after Hitler`s surprise attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, the Germans also began to threaten Moscow as well. However, in 1943, the “Red Army” succeeded in halting the Germans eastward advance. As a key to survival, the people of the Soviet Union had to disassemble over 1500 of their major industrial plants and reassemble them in the East Mountains to avoid their destruction from the German army. After being reassembled, the production of war machines began to plummet in the thousands, thus, resulting in doubling the productivity of Soviet War industries during the war. At the same time, food production in the Soviet Union began to rise as well. Similarly, in the Soviet Union, every man not involved in the war industry was recruited into the Red Army. Consequently, the Red Army finally defeated the Germans in the ruthless battle of Stalingrad, which forced the Nazis to retreat to the West. By the time the war had ended, the Soviet Union lost around 20 million civilians and soldiers. As a result, the Soviet Union`s success on the eastern front was the most important contribution to the Allied Victory in World War II.

1.       Why was the Soviet Union`s success at the eastern front the most important contribution to the Allied Victory in World War II?

2.       How and why did the British and American bombing campaigns serve as a second-front surrogate until D Day?