World War Two's Competing Myths

With the President's scheduled visit to Hiroshima next week, god I cringe at what he might say, I've been reminded of various WWII arguments I've gotten into over the years. Facebook is great for this, of course.

Recently on an alt-history forum we were debating how long Britain could fight on without the United States entering the war.

I was of the opinion that Britain could hold out indefinitely, which brings us to our first myth: Britain Stands Alone.

Not really. Even in his famous speech Churchill referenced the Empire and Commonwealth fighting on. These were no minor contributors. Canada fielded an army in Europe (they had their own beach at Normandy), Australia one in the Pacific and India on the subcontinent. That's more than 3,000,000 troops right there, no to mention naval contingents. At the end of the Canadians had the third largest navy in the world.

There was also the matter of American help to Britain, which brings us to myth number two: 'We won the war for you Brits'. I had forgotten how many Americans truly believe this. It's not our fault, when looked at from our point of view we see a Britain on the brink, needing Americans arms and financing to keep them afloat until we join the war. Which isn't to say we weren't crucial and by 1944 western leadership had passed to the US. But in terms of war strategy and forces contributed the U.S. and Britain were more or less co-equals.

At said alt-history forum we also delved into Britain's chances without the Soviets getting involved. Last summer I got in a furious row with my Russian friend's friends on FB over this. Of course, the commies think of World War II as 'Great Patriotic War' and point out they inflicted 80% of the casualties suffered by the Wehrmacht and lost 26,000,000 people. All true. But the Western Alliance drew off dozens of divisions in North Africa, Italy and later France and launched a strategic bombing campaign without any Russian help whatsoever. See also Britain and the Empire standing against the Germans for a year without the Russians. There was also, you know, the little matter of Japan.

So nobody won the war for anybody else. The United States didn't save Great Britain, the Soviets didn't defeat the Wehrmacht all their own. It was a combined, symbiotic effort and we all share in the victory.