Without getting into a tit of tat to let us not forget the huge amount of supplies sent to the Russians by the Americans.
While the Russians did manage to move most of thier factories to East of the Urals. They still needed raw materials for these factories to do any
good. Without American supplied Steel and Aluminum the Russian factories
do not produce anywhere near the amount of guns tanks and aircraft they produced during the war. Keep in mind that from 1941 to early 1944 the Germans
were occupying most of the Russian arable land.
Without American food supplies the Russian people do not eat. Also the Americans were supplying most of the finished cloth for uniforms.
Lend Lease to Russia
Lend Lease to Russia
Aircraft 14,795
Tanks 7,056
Jeeps 51,503
Trucks 375,883
Motorcycles 35,170
Tractors 8,071
Guns 8,218
Machine guns 131,633
Explosives 345,735 tons
Building equipment valued $10,910,000
Railroad freight cars 11,155
Locomotives 1,981
Cargo ships 90
Submarine hunters 105
Torpedo boats 197
Ship engines 7,784
Food supplies 4,478,000 tons
Machines and equipment $1,078,965,000
Non-ferrous metals 802,000 tons
Petroleum products 2,670,000 tons
Chemicals 842,000 tons
Cotton 106,893,000 tons
Leather 49,860 tons
Tires 3,786,000
Army boots 15,417,001 pairs
The most important of those Figures is the number of trucks and jeeps without those 2 items the Russian Army walks to Berlin.
This is not intended to discount the Russian contribution, the manpower of the Russian Army ground the guts out of the German war machine. The Eastern
Front was a different and most brutal form of warfare compared to the Western front.
American casualties from 1941-1945
407,300 military 11,200 civilian these figure do not include the Philipino casuaties 57,000 military and 90,000 civilian, Nor does it include Pacific
Islander casualties of 57000 civilians.
Not insignificant for coming to the war "late".
Military production during World War II
The above links show production figures for both Axis and Allied while the Russians could outproduce the Germans in just about all areas, American
Supplied raw materials along with wheeled vehicles and food enabled the Russians to survive.
Would the Germans have successfully invaded the UK probably not and it wouldnt have been necessary. Had the Germans mass produced thier V1 and V2
rockets they might have forced the UK to terms but The UK was developing thier Jet aircraft and still had a Navy that the Germans could not touch u
boats or not.
The Russian situation becomes more problematic, if the Germans break out from Stalingrad and do not lose the 6th army and the Russians are not the
recipents of US and UK Lend Lease. The Russians lose most everything West of the Urals. No food, no clothing, no raw materials, and no transport the
Russians are in dire straits.
In North Africa a UK Victory is not possible without American supplied Grant tanks, Priest self propelled guns, jeeps and trucks. Ample supplies of
these allow the UK not only to beat back the Germans but also exploit the breaches in the German lines forcing the retreat of the Afrika Korps from
that point on. This does not discount the UK contribution the UK was on thier own from June of 1940-June of 1941. Thier main help being US lend lease
and remants of allied armies that escaped the German conquest of Europe.
Each of the Big 3 allies had thier turning points for the UK it was the Battle of Britain and El Alemein, For the Russians it was Leningrad and
Stalingrad.
For the Americans it was Midway and Guadalcanal.
The biggest WW 2 accomplishment of the US is in the area of logistics and the US ability to move all of the men and matirial across great
distances.
For the Allies in the Pacific the casualties in fighting the Japanese mirrors the casualties for the Russians on the Eastern Front. For the amount of
land that was actually fought over the casualties were actually higher.
Seapower always trumps Landpower the UK and US have known this for quite a while. Germany was landlocked for the most part even without Russian
support the US and UK are able to beat the Germans. The Russians have the same problem as the Germans they are landlocked only worse because they have
no warm water ports Russia survives because of UK and US seapower. In the Pacific the UK with Australia, New Zealand and India are capable of
defeating the Japanese without help.
The Japanese are in a war they cannot win they cannot defeat China fully. They cannot defeat the UK and its Allies even without Chinese and American
involvement, and they cannot defeat the Americans even if the Americans fight the pacific war alone. The best the Japanese can hope for is to inflict
enough casualties to force other parties into settlement.