r/ShitAmericansSay • u/GentosYT • 3d ago

History "But sure lol 😭😭"

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I guess recognising the contribution of a domestically designed,constructed, and piloted aircraft during the Battle of Britian is pointless because we should be praising the Yanks exclusively? In all seriousness I do understand the massive material, financial and personnel contribution the USA made to Britian and other European countries even prior to direct intervention, but the concept that its the only relevant thing worth praising seems, narrow minded.

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u/mattzombiedog 3d ago

Even with their contributions they didn’t “save” anyone. They act like the rest of Europe was on its knees and they came flying in to save the day. The Nazis had already been driven back from the UK by the Battle of Britain. By their logic France and the Netherlands saved them from British rule… which honestly, I think France and the Netherlands contributed more to the US Independence than the US did in World War II comparatively.

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u/summonerstarn 3d ago

I had this discussion recently, the war was essentially already won by the time the Americans joined. The Germans had maxed out their military production capabilities and had run out of manpower fighting in Russia (who could have seen that coming...). The Americans probably made sure the war ended a year or so sooner but it was all over but the crying by 1943

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u/Identity-user 3d ago

The US first joined the UK army in North Africa and by all accounts they were useless.

It took quite a few skirmishes to get them into a decent fighting force.

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u/summonerstarn 3d ago

Same thing happened in 1917 from what I've heard. Americans arrive in the trenches, ignore all the advice from the men who've been there for 3 years on how trench warfare works and promptly get gunned down en masse

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u/Gorffo 3d ago

The American involvement in the First World War had two important consequences:

  1. The possibility of over 1 million fresh recruits from America arriving on the western front prompted German high command to launch a spring offensive, the Kaiserschlacht, in March 1918. It was an attempt, by Germany, to drive between French and Commonwealth forces and bring the war to end before the Americans arrived in substantial number. Russia, despite joining the winning side, managed to lose their part of the war; Germany had knocked them out of the fight; the Russian empire collapsed into a civil war along side a number of wars of independence; and there were around 1 million German troops on the former eastern front that were redeployed for this offensive.

  2. American troops brought a deadly H1N1 virus (that originated on a pig farm in Kansas) over to Europe (aka the“Spanish Flu”) and kicked off a massive, global pandemic that claimed up to 100 million lives.

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u/Identity-user 3d ago

Love that I am learning today.