The United States was a minor player in World War Two

Really? How do you know that....did you go back in time and observe it?

 

Germany was already fighting a war on two front - Britain - this is what I mean - the British Empire committed millions of troops to the war.

 

I'm curious based on what you can claim something like that. Do you know what was turning point of WWII?

 

D-Day, the Normandy Landings, were the turning point of WW2.

Besides the US being both a naval and land power in both the Pacific and Atlantic theaters of operation, the US waged a strategic air campaign against both Japan and Germany using the famed B17 'Flying Fortress", B24 'Liberator' and B29 'Super Fortress' The bombing campaign was both costly in material and manpower and was one of the most important factors in the defeat of the axis powers.

 

Start reading history books again and start with this one: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich written by William L. Shirer. It's one of the best books ever written about WWII.
Here's few good answers about question I've asked: Turning point in World War II?
Before D-day nazi Germany was already in defanssive and it was just matter of time when it will colapse:
Battle of Stalingrad - after defeat at Stalingrad german army was unable to win any major battles which was proven at battle of Kursk.
By June 6, 1944,D-day, german army was loosing so badly on eastern front that even they pulled every single soldier from western front I highly doubt that they could stop Red army.
Read something about what was Eastern front for germans.

Without defeating troops on ground you could use bombing campains until end of the world. If you claim that bombing was costly in manpower because of enormus civilian casulties I could I agree with you. Can you show us some stats so that we can see how effective was strategic air campain against Germany? I would love to see for example Germany tanks production by each year of the war.

 

The Wehrmacht and Waffen SS had significant forces in France protecting both Normandy and Brittany. At the point of the Normandy Invasion, 'Operation Overlord', the eastern fron in Russia was in a stalemate. German forces in Normandy would have been enough to have given the Germans a tactical advantage on the Eastern Front.

The bombing campaign against the Germans also stopped them from producing enough of their new wonder weapons to make a differnce in the war. The MP44 Sturmgewehr was one of the new weapons that could have given the germans an edge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzXUEiAwD3M&feature=related

You are also failing to account for the vast lend-lease assistance given both Britian and the USSR by the United States.

 

Without the Russians the UK would have fallen to the Germans very quickly after France. Hitler was planning the UK invasion but had to put the actions on hold because of the new war on the Eastern Front.

If the UK had fallen, I highly doubt the US would have got involved in Europe.

 

The only way the Germans could have defeated the Russians is if the Japanese had invaded Russia instead of foolishly bombing pearl habour.

 

The Germans didn't have to defeat the Russians. A stalemate would have been victory.

 

So... you're saying Germany would have won if Japan hadn't gotten America involved? Japan was practically nuetralized from the time America came in, because most of our navy and resources went west into the Pacific to at least hold Japan to a stalemate and eventually push them back to their home islands.

Is America's role in putting actual troops on the ground in Europe over-rated? Probably a little bit. Is America's role in the war over-rated? No - if for no other reason that no other national power aside from Russia was able to generate the money or social energy to resist the expansion of our financial interests after the war.

 

As I already said: start reading history books. After defeat at Stalingrad germans didn't have enough forces to do any major breakthru on any of fronts. You can see that at other battle I refered too: Battle of Kurks which occured way before there's even sign on landing in Normandy:

When Russian summer 1944. offensive codenamed Operation Bagration started they sent 120 divisions with more than 2.3 million troops at german Army Group Centre and they were smashed loosing more than 600,000 soldiers and at very end of that offensive Red army reached pre-war Polish borders.
Btw is that offensive stalemate you we're talking about?
Parallael with that soviets started several other offensives in Ukraine and in south Romania. Soviets simply had far more man power than germans.
And not only that. After war started they quickly build what they lack of and germans had plenty of: war industry:
Tanks and self-propelled guns production during war
year soviets germans
41. 6,590 5,200
42. 24,446 9,300
43. 24,089 19,800
44. 28,963 27,300
This numbers simply tells us that Red army year after year had more tanks than germans and also tells us that your claims about how bombing campain was one of most important factors in beating axis power is not exactly true.

I seriously doubt that and again going back to Red army: they were,compared to german army, badly equiped and trained but they simply had enough man power to beat german army.

That had nothing to do with turning point of the war which is subject of our disscusion here. Claiming that US played minor role in beating nazis is insult to all those brave US soldiers who died across Europe in WWII but I can't agree with rewriting the history facts.

 

The losses that the Germans suffered in the Normandy Breakout (Operation Cobra) provided he Soviets the opportunity to drive the Germans back from deep within the Ukraine in early 1944.

The Normandy Breakout inflicted on the Germans was one of the greatest defeats of WW2. Losses amounted to over 400,000 men, 1,500 tanks and Self-propelled guns, with 25 divisions essentially destroyed.

 

I highly doubt that operation started in july 1944. provided soviets with anything in early 1944. I could be wrong thou.

 

Wasn't Hitlers plan to make the new frontier on the river Don - for the Living room of his Reich

 

The first operation the Normandy Landings, Overlord, started June 6, 1944 and substantial German units were destroyed.

The Normandy brealout was the final blow.

The Germans holding at the Vistula & Dnister Rivers would have been a victory.

 

The reason Japan was on it's knees is because AMERICA had taken virtually every island from her, and had wipped her good.

 

I totally agree. Good summary!

 

The US had Japan on it's knees due to both the bombing campaign using B29 bombers and submarine campaign.

 

More than whole year before that they lost at Stalingrad and started with withdrawal on eastern front. When they lost at Stalingrad and also at Moscow there were no western front so D-day simply didn't play any role in German defeat on eastern front.

I showed you tank production during WWII from Germans and Soviets. By those numbers you could see that there's no way that Germans could hold any defence line against Soviets for any longer time.

 

I agree partially, because you can bomb someone for a long time without any results, just look how long the UK held out.

Winning the islands helped out a whole lot.