How did the russians help win the 2nd world war?

There were many different factors that influenced the victory of the allies such as the evacuation of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) at Dunkirk. This helped greatly because it not only increased the morale of the British, but also formed the basis for a new army. However possibly one of the main factors was the Soviet Union’s contribution.

Hitler’s foreign minister, Joachin Von Ribbentrop picked out three main factors…

· The unexpected “power of resistance” of the red army (Russia).

· The vast supply of American armaments.

· The success of the allied air power.

This was Hitler’s explanation too, although, Hitler thought the real military cause of defeat was the failure of the German Air Force. As Hitler’s foreign minister picked out the strength of the “Red Army,” it would have to have been a considerable contribution.

On 22 June 1941, some three million soldiers of Germany and her allies began an attack on the Soviet Union. This war was supposed to be over in a matter of months, but it lasted for four years, and grew into the largest and most costly conflict in all history. It was here

By the beginning of July 1940, the RAF had built up its strength to 640 fighters, but the Luftwaffe had 2600 bombers and fighters. In the skies, above South East England, the future of Britain was about to be decided. As the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill put it; "What General Weygrand called the Battle of France is over, the Battle of Britain is about to begin". In order to invade Britain, the Germans had to have control in the air over the English Channel, otherwise the RAF and the Royal Navy would have been able to destroy their invasion force before it reached the shore. It has been postulated by many naval experts that due to the type of flat-bottomed barge built by the Germans, simply running a Destroyer Squadron at full speed through their ranks would have caused many to capsize in the wake from the ships. The troops and their equipment would have suffered heavy casualties, and the invasion effectively stopped with little or no gunfire. The Luftwaffe's command of the air was therefore vital to any plan for an invasion fleet to successfully cross the Channel, to prevent British sea or air forces from interfering with the operation Starting on 10 July 1940, the Luftwaffe attacked shipping convoys in the Channel and Channel Ports. They also suspected the importance of the British radar masts and attacked the stations on the South coast, damaging some of them very badly.

Germanys invasion of Britain could not succeed if the Luftwaffe did not have supremacy in the air. On 14th August 1940 the Luftwaffe launched an attack on British Bomber Command. In two weeks of air fighting, one quarter of British pilots were killed or badly injured. For 53 nights they came every night. On 7th September 1940 the Luftwaffe started bombing Cities. This was a fatal mistake. It gave the RAF time to regroup, repair airfields and train new pilots. On 15th September 1940 the German air force came and at this time there was a lot of propaganda going on to boost British citizens moral, for example, people were asked to donate scrap metal for new planes. This metal would just have been dumped though, because metal was plentiful, pilots were not. On many radio broadcasts it was reported that more German planes were shot down than actually were. In some cases three or four times as many. The Britain won the Battle of Britain for a few reasons; the Allied planes, Spitfire and Hurricane easily outmatched the Luftwaff

Some topics in this essay:
Royal Navy, Bomber Command, Soviet Union, Stalingrad German, Destroyer Squadron, Spitfire Hurricane, Operation Barbarossa, East West, Dunkirk Germans, Von Ribbentrop, soviet union, air force, 1940 luftwaffe, german air force, british expeditionary force, expeditionary force, british pilots, royal navy, russian soil, soviet union main, basis army, hitler’s foreign minister, september 1940, union main cause, foreign minister,