Comments by "Digital Nomad" (@digitalnomad9985) on "‘A little bit ridiculous’: Retired general on Russia’s new tactic" video.
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@Chipolinou "In 1947, Poland, together with Nazi Germany, seized territories from Czechoslovakia. After that, Churchill called Poland the "hyena of Europe." It turns out that Poland was an ally of Germany"
False. Germany surrendered to the allies in 1945. There was no Nazi Germany in 1947 and Poland was occupied by Soviet forces by then. From the joint Reich/Soviet invasion in 1939 till they regained their independence in 1981, Poland was occupied by foreign enemies. In fact, after the Soviet Union and Germany signed their Non-Aggression Pact and cooperated in crushing Poland the USSR gave political support and material aid to the Reich. This was the first intervention of the USSR in events leading up to the greater war, and it was helping the wrong side.
The Soviet Union was actually an ally of Nazi Germany and the USSR was supporting the Reich with its propaganda and vast amounts of material aid shipped across Poland by rail. While the US was already becoming the Arsenal of Democracy by sending material aid to the UK prior to the declaration of war, the USSR was simultaneously becoming the Arsenal of Despotism by sending material aid to Hitler up to the very day that Operation Barbarossa was launched. The actual crossing of the demarcation line by the Wehrmacht was timed so the first tank crossed the line eastward just as the last train of Soviet war material crossed the line westward. The courage of the Soviet peoples in the latter part of the war was commendable, but a complete analysis of the net Soviet contribution to the war must take into account that the problem the USSR helped solve was largely a problem they helped create. That Stalin's ally betrayed him in no way makes him the hero of the war. The Soviet Union didn't join the Allies until they had to do so to survive, and without the aid of the Atlantic Alliance (US/UK) they could not have survived.
"The USSR destroyed 80 percent of German soldiers. In the Second World War."
If those are the Soviet figures, they are no doubt inflated, that was standard procedure for Soviet history books and press releases. Any official that didn't inflate Soviet public figures would have been shot. At that, I doubt that they counted the German soldiers killed before the Soviet Union was attacked. As far as the USSR history books are concerned, that was the START of the "Great Patriotic War", and it ignores the German Axis ally Italy entirely (not to mention Japan).
The US declared war on December 11, 1941. The turning point of Germany's eastern front, prior to which Germany was totally on the offensive was the Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 - 2 February 1943). By the time the Battle of Stalingrad had even begun, the US and UK were already shipping aid in bulk to the Soviet Union, mostly food a first, but constantly trucks and fuel, shipped in by Anglo-American convoys fighting through the German attempt at blockade. The defenders of Stalingrad almost starved as it was, and would certainly have starved without that aid.
By the time the USSR had turned to the offensive, The US had been supplying, and continued to supply, Sherman tanks in vast numbers to all the allies including the Soviet Union. The UK also supplied the USSR with some tanks. The US and the UK also supplied the Soviets with combat and logistics aircraft. 90% of the trucks supporting the Soviet offensive logistical effort were Studebaker trucks shipped in from US factories, and the bulk of the fuel was from the US as well. Without that aid the Soviet offensive would not have been possible logistically or materially.
Shortly after the US declaration of war, the US sent ground forces to aid the British effort to push the Axis powers out of Northern Africa. In November of 1942, the US opened an African front of its own in Operation Torch. The Anglo-American offensive pushed the Axis out of Africa, and deprived them of their main source of oil. This began well before the end of the Stalingrad battle and the start of the Soviet offensive, and paved the way for the subsequent Anglo-American invasions of Sicily and Italy, which took Italy out of the war. The US and UK also were heavily bombing Germany proper and military targets in Axis occupied Europe, reducing Germany's industrial capacity and inflicting casualties. All of this BEFORE the Normandy invasion.
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