- Happy Victory Day for World War II!…
- The Russians really won WWII…
- Jim Rickards issues an urgent warning for all investors…
Dear Reader,
Today is May 8.
In the United States May 8 is known as Victory in Europe Day.
On this date in 1945 the Germans sank to their knees… and conceded defeat to the Allied powers.
Yet henceforward — by decree of President Trump — May 8 will be known as Victory Day for World War II.
Why the alteration? In the president’s words:
- All over the World, the Allies are celebrating the Victory we had in World War II. The only Country that doesn’t celebrate is the United States of America, and the Victory was only accomplished because of us…
- We did more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result in World War II. I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II…
- Nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!”
Just so.
“You Don’t Know War Until You Have Fought Germans”
The United States endured some 186,200 slain at the hands of Germans in World War II — on land, in air and at sea.
Today I lower my chin to my chest in solemn acknowledgement of their sacrifice.
Sir Churchill once claimed, “You don’t know war until you have fought Germans.”
These 186,200 Americans fought Germans, 1941-1945. Thus they knew war.
Yet did the United States do “more than any other Country, by far, in producing a victorious result in World War II?”
Did no other nation come “close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance”… as the president claims?
This January the president declared, “We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War…”
I am confident the Russians would invert the equation.
The Eastern Front Decided the War
Over 1.1 million Russians perished at Stalingrad alone — for example — some six times all United States fatalities at German hands for the entire war.
Meantime, the 1943 Battle of Kursk represented the largest conflagration in the history of arms.
Over three million men… Russian and German… seized their opponents by the throat.
Ten thousand tanks and 8,000 aircraft locked in hellacious collision.
Can you imagine it? You likely cannot, such was the scale,
Yet the Russians won and the Germans lost.
Following Kursk German defeat was not if — but when.
Critically: The battle transpired nearly one entire year before the 1944 Allied landfall in France.
The Russians Inflicted 80% of All German Casualties in WWII
Precisely how significant was the Russian contribution to the Allied triumph?
Russia inflicted some 80% of all German wartime casualties — 80%!
Russian combat fatalities alone ran to 8.7 million.
Yet an additional 19 million Russian civilians we must add to the figure — for over 27 million Russians in all.
Can you imagine American society enduring casualties of such staggering magnitude?
Please do not profess to know the answer, I already know.
Thus Russian blood understandably goes up… and Russian backs go up… when a United States president claims Russia helped the United States win the Second World War.
The Russians Would Have Won Anyway
Let us subtract all doubt — the United States handed Russia substantial material assistance in the Second World War.
That material assistance contributed unquestionably to Russia’s scotching of the Krauts.
Yet as author David Glantz wrote in When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler… the Russians would have prevailed regardless.
It merely would have required additional time:
- If the Western Allies had not provided equipment and invaded northwest Europe, Stalin and his commanders might have taken twelve to eighteen months longer to finish off the Wehrmacht.
- The result would probably have been the same, except that Soviet soldiers would have waded at France’s Atlantic beaches rather than meeting the Allies at the Elbe.
The War Was Already Decided
Meantime, much of the American provisions arrived only after Russia swung the war their way.
The National Interest:
- Most likely, the Soviets would have won regardless, as the Eastern Front for the Germans was unwinnable after the Battle of Stalingrad, before most of the aid to the USSR arrived.
And as the West Point History of the Second World War styles it:
- Although lend-lease was a great help from 1943 to the end of the war… It had not arrived during their greatest peril, but only when they began to win the war anyway…
- [The Soviets] would probably have won the same victory without any assistance at all.
The Facts
I repeat, and for emphasis:
I do not deny, denigrate or diminish the American contribution to Allied triumph — its contribution neither in life nor in treasure.
And as an American patriot of the deepest dye and the reddest blood… of that contribution I am supremely proud.
Yet we must all stand innocently before fact.
And what does fact dictate?
That the United States did not help the Russians defeat the Germans.
Rather, fact dictates that the United States helped Russia defeat the Germans.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
