Who Did the Most to DEFEAT GERMANY in World War II?

Discover unpublished and rarely seen photographs from the Battle of Berlin in 1945, brought together in an exclusive collection for history enthusiasts. More than 200 historical photographs take you through the final days of the Third Reich and reveal scenes rarely shown in documentaries. 🔥 Access the collection now and discover Berlin 1945 like never before: https://derkommandant.com/en The question of who did the most to defeat Germany in World War II does not have a completely simple answer, because victory was the result of the combined effort of numerous nations. However, from a strictly military perspective and considering the sheer scale of land combat, the Soviet Union played the primary role in the destruction of the Wehrmacht. The Eastern Front was the largest and bloodiest theater of the entire war: more combatants died there than in all other theaters of World War II combined. From the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, millions of soldiers were locked in a titanic struggle that would ultimately consume the vast majority of Germany's manpower and material resources. ​The price paid by the Soviets was extraordinary. After suffering catastrophic defeats during the opening months of Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army managed to halt the German advance outside Moscow and later turned the tide of the war with decisive victories at Stalingrad and Kursk. From 1943 onward, the Soviets pushed steadily westward. In June 1944, Operation Bagration effectively annihilated the German Army Group Centre, inflicting roughly 390,000 German casualties in just nine weeks, according to the National WWII Museum. Finally, the Red Army breached German territory and captured Berlin in May 1945. ​Yet asserting that the USSR defeated Germany entirely on its own would be equally misleading. The United States and the British Empire were essential in transforming the conflict into a global war of attrition that Germany could never sustain. Great Britain stayed in the fight when most of Western Europe had fallen, engaged German forces in the Mediterranean, and spearheaded a massive strategic bombing campaign against the Reich. The United States supplied unmatched industrial and logistical capacity, fought in Africa, Italy, and Western Europe, and, together with British, Canadian, and other Allied forces, opened the massive Western Front with the Normandy landings in June 1944. Furthermore, Allied strategic bombing severely crippled German industrial infrastructure and war-making capability. ​Therefore, if one must point to the power that bore the heaviest burden of ground combat against Germany and destroyed the largest portion of its military, the answer is the Soviet Union. However, the defeat of the Third Reich was the achievement of a coalition: while the Soviets crushed the Wehrmacht from the east, the Americans, British, and their allies exerted crushing pressure from the west and south, gained complete air superiority, and forced Germany to split its forces across multiple fronts. By 1944, the combined weight of Operation Bagration in the east and Normandy in the west left Germany trapped between two unstoppable military juggernauts. From that point on, the question was no longer whether Germany would be defeated, but when its final ruin would come. 🎵Music Played on this video & Channel: 'Catalyst' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Goliath' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'The Long Dark' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Discovery' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Emergent' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Rise Above' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'This Too Shall Pass' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Chasing Daylight' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Vanguard' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Ignis' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'The Vision' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'The Spaces Between' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Ascension' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'The Call' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au 'Terminus' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au