Holocaust survivors are sueing the U.S?

[1stdeadeye]

correct me if I am wrong, but wasnt the US poised to finish off the Germans with an invasion of Berlin, but chose to give the "honor" to the Russians? so saying the Russians finished off the Germans, without giving credit to the fact that the US could have done so had they chose is a little misleading.

Actually the Russians were allowed to take Berlin because of the enormous amount of casualties expected. The rest of the allies were more then happy to let the Soviets spend their blood to take it.

[bleachit]

that is true, but not what I was getting at. To say that the Russians finished off the Germans themselves implies that the US couldnt. They were in a position to go for Berlin, but chose not to. Not only because of the casualties expected, but because the Russians fought hard and long, suffered a lot as a result of the Germans, so allowing them to take Berlin was, I guess in some form, allowing the Russians to take their revenge upon the Germans. The Russians, "earned" the right to take Berlin much more than the Americans or British because of this. I think there were a few political reasons for the decision as well.. but really cannot think of them at the moment.

edit: the allies, before the end of the war, divided up sections of Germany for each of the major countries involved to control. Since Berlin was in the Russians section, having US forces take Berlin, only to hand it over to the Russians, was less than desirable.

[SlartyBartFast]

Can you ever finish a puzzle (WWII) without the last piece (the U.S.)?

Of course we didn't single handedly win anything, but without our help I have no doubt (and I don't know how anyone can) Germany would be much larger right now. Does anyone disagree with that?

And by that same argument, the US should therefor be eternally grateful for the million commonwealth troops in Asia. No?

As for larger Germany, "what if" scenarios for WWII are pretty pathetic and are just pure conjecture. A larger Russia was certainly a possibility.

In either case, Britain may have been a larger world power and the US possibly much smaller as Britain would not have divested of the empire. Seeing as Hitler actually had a profound respect for Britain initially and wanted to work with Britain (he saw the third reich as rising to be an equal with the British empire) later cooperation between the two powers may have been trouble for the US. Britain may have certainly refused to pay back war debts, depriving the US of military installations and cash.

Of course a HUGE joker card in all conjecture is how Russia plays in these scenarios.