re: #77 William Lewis

I would and have argued that the Soviets could have done it without us. Longer and higher casualties to be sure, but the Germans simply didn’t have the resources to win. Iron, coal, oil, tungsten, etc all put them in a hole that they could not ultimately get out of. As Tootze’s The Wages of Destruction shows, they lost the war the day they declared it. The only questions were how long and how many dead.

I used to hold that opinion too. But even with all the other wars on other fronts, the Soviets nearly used up a generation as soldiers (e.g. 97% of men born 1918-20). I have wondered whether they had the manpower to keep fighting for a lot longer.