MovieChat Forums > Stalingrad (1993) Discussion > Who won the war?

Who won the war?

posted 19 years ago by Billionaire
325 replies | jump to latest

I recently used this film along w/ Geoffrey Robert's Victory at Stalingrad in an undergraduate course to illustrate the severity and enormity of the German-Soviet theater. The in-class discussions were interesting. Most students came into the class only vaguely realizing that there even WAS an Eastern front. I think that this is b/c in most American popular renditions of the war, the Russians only make a cameo in the last 2 mo.s or so to capture Berlin; What could loosely be described as the "Saving Private Ryan view" of WWII (please don't get huffy, I like that movie).

In light of this, who would you say was most responsible for the Allied victory? the East or the West? the U.S. or the U.S.S.R.? Eisenhower or Zhukov?

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] leighburne 12 years ago

The Russians, no question. While all the other nations undeniably played their part in the war, the Soviet Union destroyed the best Germany had to offer, and they never recovered. D-Day might have been a very different story if the German army hadn't been so decimated at Stalingrad and Kursk.

[–] tmf_scipio 12 years ago

It was an allied effort.

"Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade."

[–] htyn-594-816687 11 years ago

some US commentators usually right wing keep repeating the mantra, about if it was not for them, western Europe would be speaking German or Russian. Did this line of thinking only came up following the debacle in Vietnam and stalemate in Korea earlier? Since WW2 the US never had any really clean cut military victories, that includes the current wars in the middle east. So they look back to the so called 'good old days' of WW2? By them saying that really trivialises a lot of suffering for millions and the complexities of the situation at the time

[–] JackSlaterIV 9 years ago

russia absorbed most of the german offensive while US tested germans in africa, and handled japan. when UK was under extreme pressure US had to step up on the western front.

Angel : In 243 years I've loved exactly one person.

[–] gasivodo 9 years ago

Islam did! Yes?!? I mean it - as in thé Monotheistic religion* with fewest casualties..

*The big three

[–] murad23 9 years ago

The west won the war.

Firstly Russia was Hilter's ally at the beginning of WWI. They had a formal agreement to jointly attack invade Poland from either side and that is exactly what they did.

When Russia and Germany did end up fighting each other it is soley because massive delivery of US war supplies, which was massive delivery of US material to the Soviets, none of which was charged for anywhere near real value that allowed the soviets to avoid being crushed.

[–] bushd0 9 years ago

No one really won, there are only losers and temporary gains in war.. The entire WW2 did nothing at all, only maybe to strike fear into the world to make alliances and treaties before anything radical could ever happen. Most if not all wars are quite pointless eventually.. All this killing for what? Most of the time the motivations for it are gone by the next/future generations.. In war, we all lose.

[–] mickmaxy 9 years ago

Definitely a team effort. Without Britain keeping a Scheiße-load of German troops busy on the western front, Germany would've been able to concentrate their armies and resources on defeating Russia, which in 1942 was still a possibility.
America's entry into the war was the end of the beginning IMO, it allowed the western allies to clean up the outlying Axis territories in Africa and the Mediterranian before focusing on opening a second front to relieve pressure on the Russkies.
The Russian relocation of war-factories to the east allowed them to build up reserve forces without interference from the Germans, to be unleashed at an appropriate time and place.
America's industrial strength was a deciding factor, overwhelming Germany's battered industrial output.
Without the massive Russian manpower or America's industrial strength and Britain's dogged determination to stay in the game, it could've been a negotiated separate peace that might have saved Germany from complete destruction.

Footnotes on the subject would include the Allies breaking of Enigma and Hitlers heading the military war strategy. He was no General, at best a competent corporal.