B0ycey wrote:If by heavy lifting you mean self interest defending, then sure.
By heavy lifting I mean the vast majority of the actual fighting, and taking the vast, vast majority of the casualties.
As for it being about "self interest"? Of course it was in the Russians' "self interest" not to let themselves be enslaved or exterminated by the Nazis. What an asinine point.
B0ycey wrote:And I doubt their motivation for doing so was to help the UK keep their white cliffs but to keep their city.
No more than our motivation was to defend the independence of Poland, or the Americans' motivation was a principled stand against a dictatorship in Europe.
B0ycey wrote:Although it does need to be said that tactical error is judgement and bad weather is fortune.
Laying siege to a city in the Russian winter is absolutely a (terrible) judgment call. You act as though Russia isn't known for freezing cold winters.
B0ycey wrote:As for America being a straw. It was more than that. It was the difference between D Day being possible and not possible.
You are absolutely missing the point. Of course the USA was vital to D Day. D Day was only possible at all because the Soviets had the vast majority of the German army tied down in the East, and after the battle of Kursk in 1943 (almost a year before D Day!) the Soviets were driving the Germans back.
The USA's own generals calculated that without the Russian effort on the Eastern Front, they'd have had to
double theirbinvasion force for D Day. The Germans had about twice as many soldiers committed in the East as they did in the west, and 80% of their casualties were on that front.
If you don't believe me, take it from US Major General JH Burns, who wrote the
following memo in 1943:
In War II Russia occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor looking toward the defeat of the Axis in Europe. While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the United States are being opposed by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving attention of approximately 200 German divisions. Whenever the Allies open a second front on the Continent, it will be decidedly a secondary front to that of Russia; theirs will continue to be the main effort. Without Russia in the war, the Axis cannot be defeated in Europe, and the position of the United Nations becomes precarious. Similarly, Russia’s post-war position in Europe will be a dominant one. With Germany crushed, there is no power in Europe to oppose her tremendous military forces.
Emphasis mine.
The fundamental problem with your view of this issue is that it assumes, as far too many British people do, that the Western front on WW2 was the main one. It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination. Hitler's major goals all lay in the East, and that is borne out quite clearly by the
enormous force he committed to the Eastern front.
"Perhaps you want me to die of unrelieved boredom while you keep talking." - Martin Luther