It was the Yanks wot won it

This isn't the result we usually think of. It's more likely that we'll think that the terrible loss of life by the Soviets, or perhaps plucky little Britain, fighting on alone, is really what won the battle against the Nazis. but the wisdom of the crowds has it right again:

As the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of Allied victory in Europe, millions in the UK will honour the role played by British forces in the defeating Nazi Germany.

According to a new poll, however, most other countries look to the United States as the country that did the most to vanquish Adolf Hitler.

A YouGov survey asked respondents from the US, Britain, and several European countries who they thought was most essential to defeating Germany in the Second World War and the US was the top choice in all but the UK and Norway.

Modern war isn't won by battles. It's won by winning the war. And that's more a matter of logistics than anything else. And it's at that point that America becomes so important. The vast productive capacity of the American economy meant that Germany was going to be defeated, whatever else happened, in the end. Once, that is, that the United States had come into the war on the side against Germany.

We can talk a lot about tactics, battles, who suffered most (that has an easy answer, those inbetween Germany and Russia, those in the Bloodlands) but the eventual outcome was never really in doubt. Not once the American economy entered on the one side.