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Position:Home>History> Should Britain have been embarrassed that it could not defeat Nazi Germany aloneQuestion: Should Britain have been embarrassed that it could not defeat Nazi Germany alone !? !? My grandad who is 83 and who has lived through the second world war says that asking for the USA help in the second World war was one of the most embarrassing things to ever happen , he said it made us the British look weak , do you believe he is right was asking for help embarrassing on Britain's part !?
Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm sure your granddad is a splendid man but we need to get real here!. Hitler's troops overran Europe in months - apart from Sweden which played on its Aryan background and stayed neutral - and the U!.K!. was left alone to fight the might of the German forces!. Rather than concentrating on his perceived shame he should have referred you to the British airmen, together with Poles, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans AND Americans who saved this country during the Battle of Britain!. I think your granddad's opinions may originate form the inate anti-Americanism that has existed in Britain since they took over our role as the dominant military and industrial nation in the world!. The truth of the matter is that without American intervention it would have been almost impossible to have defeated the German forces!. You might ask your granddad if he is embarrassed by having the U!.S!.S!.R!. as an ally, because without them and the unbelievable sacrifices they made, losing millions of lives to the German onslaught, there wouldn't have been a war for the Americans to help us win!. In closing; I respect your granddad's opinions but you should rejoice that although we stood alone for the first phase of the war, we kept up the fight and together with our allies defeated the cancer that was Fascism!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I am a bit bemused by this question!. I have always understood that the USA entered the war because they had been bombed by the Japanese, rather than because they had been 'asked to help'!. also, consider that the war had been going on for two years before America entered it, and we had done all right at holding the Germans off until then!. The Battle of Britain isn't exactly something to be ashamed of, is it!? Personally, I am fairly confident that even if America had not entered the war, we would have won eventually!. Don't forget that 'Britian' in those days didn't mean just this little island of ours, it also meant the whole of the British Empire, Canada, Australia New Zealand, India, parts of the West Indies and large chuncks of Africa!. also, don't forget that Russia was also fighting the Germans on the Eastern front, which meant they were under attack from East and West!. I think your grandad is a very strange man!. Www@QuestionHome@Com The only embarrassing thing that anyone in Allied Europe was ignoring Hitlers rise in power, and not stopping him early!. Nobody could have beaten Nazi Germany on thier own by the point that anyone started doing something about Hitler!. He had already gained control over quite a few European countries, and therefore gained men, crucial strategic points in the land, and supplies!. So no, it is not anything to be embarrased about!. Like I said, the only foolish thing that was done was pretending that Hitler wasn't getting stronger!. But the whole world did that!.Www@QuestionHome@Com No, that's silly!. Germany was a Continental power!. That means they had the internal lines of communication!. The only embarrassment would be the lack of personal arms in 1940, and the attached request for personal firearms from the US, almost none of which were returned to their owners after the war!. It's still a scandal that most UK citizens don't own firearms!.Www@QuestionHome@Com !.Great Britain stood alone against nazi aggression!.When the US had to hop of the fence after Pearl Harbour and Hitler's declaration of war on the US!.That was the beginning of the ed for the nazis!.Who by the way were in retreat in Africa and the Soviet Union before US entry to the war!.Still we're gratefull for US aid!.Without it Europe would be communist and under the influence of MoscowWww@QuestionHome@Com Harry Potter couldn't defeat evil on his own!. Nobody can!. It takes all of us!. We're all complicit in that struggle!. ************************** p!.s!. Britain needed the US for its expendable human lives and manpower!. The US did not join for any moral causes!. It joined for economic reasons!. This is why the US did not join until after Pearl Harbor in 1941, and this is why US Immigration was sending Jews back into the holocaust by the boatload from Ellis Island!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I mean possible yes, but i mean think about it every country goes through there political blunders look at the us now and the war in Iraq don't you think that's just as embarrassing!. I know it is for me and I'm an American!. Www@QuestionHome@Com I don't know so much about that!. But would it have made him feel better if we hadn't helped and maybe you would be speaking German now!? Besides, I think we needed you as much as you needed us!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Yes!. Your grandma is correct!. But is was your grandfa who fought it out!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |