Well?
Kind of a loaded question, because every Ally was crucial in winning the war. Theoretically, for the purpose of discussion, I'd have to go with Russia (there was no USSR during WW2), because if Germany hadn't backstabbed Stalin, and Russia hadn't tied up German troops, we very well might have lost. We most certainly would have lost if Russia had joined the Axis.
Kind of a loaded question, because every Ally was crucial in winning the war. Theoretically, for the purpose of discussion, I'd have to go with Russia (there was no USSR during WW2), because if Germany hadn't backstabbed Stalin, and Russia hadn't tied up German troops, we very well might have lost. We most certainly would have lost if Russia had joined the Axis.
When do you think the USSR was formed? The rest of your analysis is very good.
Kind of a loaded question, because every Ally was crucial in winning the war. Theoretically, for the purpose of discussion, I'd have to go with Russia (there was no USSR during WW2), because if Germany hadn't backstabbed Stalin, and Russia hadn't tied up German troops, we very well might have lost. We most certainly would have lost if Russia had joined the Axis.
(there was no USSR during WW2), .
Stalin's war effort might've very well faltered if it were not for the resources provided by the United States' lend-lease program. Likewise, Japan could've wreaked some pretty serious havoc in Siberia if we had not been around to keep their forces otherwise occupied.
Ultimately, the Allied war effort in Europe could be looked upon as being a "hammer and anvil" sort of situation. The USSR played the role of the anvil, keeping the brunt of German forces locked in place, while the US and UK played the part of the hammer, coming in to slam them from behind.
Taken individually, neither element is especially effective. In combination, however; they are devastating.
The Soviet Union had a death toll of anywhere between 22-30 million during WW2, primarily military deaths. The USA and UK combined was less than 1 million deaths. I say again that without Soviet involvement on the side of the Allies, we would not have won that war. :shrug: It's my opinion.
The USSR was the only nation capable of defeating the Nazis. The U.S. was the only nation capable of defeating Japan. These facts are easily backed up if you look at the break down of which nation caused the various losses suffered by the Axis.
Well?
As many have pointed out, it took all three to win. If I was going to make a "most important", I would probably go with England, though it is by a very small margin. If they had folded early, as was very possible, then Germany gets it all. The Soviets would have fallen to the more concentrated attacks from Germany, there would have been no staging area for a US landing in Europe(or at least not nearly as good) and any attempted landing to open up a second front would have been almost certain to fail. Without the US in the war, there are routes to victory, though they are small and very unlikely. Likewise without the Soviets. Without England however, no route to victory.
how would have Germany launched a successful attack against us. By 43 our submarines were far superior to theirs, our destroyers far more able to take out UBoats, and our heavy bombers were much much better than theirs. The one thing they had was Jets but those had very limited range. we also had far better radar and (while lots of people don't know this) the infra red weapons sight technology was a huge advantage-infrared equipped small arms inflicted a huge number of casualties upon the Japanese on Okinawa for example and neither the Germans nor the Japanese had any real effective countermeasures for the P61 Black Widow fighters
I doubt they would have. They would have had most of Europe and would really have needed time to assimilate all that new territory.
probably and sooner or later it would have all blown up. We'd have taken the Japanese out faster without having a European campaign and from then on, we'd be able to pound germany with high altitude B29 strikes and constrict it with a far superior naval blockade.
I do not think it would have gone quite that way. With a collapsed England, and the war in Europe essentially over without us stirring it up, we would probably have taken out Japan for Pearl Harbor and negotiated peace with Germany. Ofcourse this is all getting highly speculative.
No one country claims the title of being most valuable. If not for the efforts of England, The United States and The Soviet Union, Axis forces would have won.
It could be credibly argued that The United States brought a level of generalship to the table that was priceless, which I believe to be true, but I also believe that only two of the Big Three had no chance of winning.