This threat was more imaginary then reality. I could make the absolute same claim about the U.S. threat of attacking the Soviet bloc.....Welcome to the cold war.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

So you are saying that Russia did not posses nor ever intend to lauch nuclear missles at the US.

I was only around for the end of it, and hope that I never have to see it again. Similar to you I believe. While I am not advocate of one world government, peace does sound nice. Cant we all just get along?

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The Muslim Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands..." — Mohamed Akram. http://jihadwatch.org/

That is exactly what im saying. Ask yourself, why would they? This was in the minds of both nations and both nations used this excuse on the other to build up arms in case of an attack.


That I agree with!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

I was around for a large portion of the Cold War and I remember being very fearful of a nuclear exchange. I am not old enough to remember things like the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I have strong memories of the Yom Kippur and how tense it got then between the US and the Soviet Union. As a boy, there was always the fear that the Warsaw Pact forces would ride across Central Europe.

I am very glad the Cold War is over and do not wish to see hostilities escalate between the US and Russia. We have a common enemy we need to address.

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Best Regards,
JW

All for one and one for all! I believe I deserve this title as well!!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

I agree Sloniksp, you and Za are the twin fists of Nazi Smashing here on the WWII Forums!

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"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance." Socrates

One of the nicest things some one has ever said to me!

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Capitalists, of all stripes, hated the Soviet Union. Always did, always will. Considered communism from day one a dire threat to their greedy way of life. Nothing at all personal against the Russian people.

Regarding a 'continuation war' against the Soviet Union right after defeating the once mighty German war machine, one factor has been completely overlooked: What capacity of war material production was available to Uncle Joe in mid-1945?

Stalin was certainly as crazy as Hitler as to involve his country in "total war" and he certainly had much more manpower to spend in 1945, even after the WW2 bloodbath with Germany.

Stalin could have extended or contracted the Western front to suit his military needs, just as he did against the Germans. This war of attrition would have caused the Allies to scream UNCLE..............Joe!

Even in 1945, long range bombing by the Allies against Soviet war production on the other side of the Urals would have been very difficult at best, thus the KEY to winning or losing a 'continuation war' against the SU would have been the amount of war production the factories in the east were capable of.

Stalin + Unlimited manpower + Unlimited war producion = Victory over Allies.

Simplistic at best. Some capitalist got along well with the Soviets. Calling capitalist greedy is both inaccurate and ufair. Communism was a political phylosophy that chose capitalism as one of it's primary antagonists.
Much more important is what it would have looked like in the later part of 45 and afterward. The answer is pretty grim, at least for the Soviets.
That is a highly questionable assumption.
Why do you think he could manage this? Indeed the Western allies had the potential of opening a number of different fronts and widening the war if they chose in ways Stalin had no hope of doing.
No. Without the ability to attack much of the Soviet industrial center allied bombers would pretty much have been forced to attack more lucrative targes such as: Logistics centers, bridges, supply dumps, troop concnetrations, and airfields.
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Except:

Stalin not only didn't have unlimited manpower he had less manpower than the West and what he had he would have had a hard time feeding had the war gone on.

He also didn't have unlimited war production. His production facilities were inferior to those of the US alone much less the US and Western allies. Further more he had concntrated it in a number of areas due to lend lease. Lend lease also supplied a bunch of raw materials. Then there is the problem with feeding the factory workers in late 45 and after.

Stalin quite wisely did not want a continuation war.

Ok OK I said I would stay out but just could help myself!

Really? Care to ellaborate on this interesting opinion?

This might only be the case if the SU did not have an airforce. Unfortunately this would not have been the case as SU had thousands of planes and veteran pilots. Also keep in mind that ( as history has shown )air superiority alone does not win wars, it just helps the side with this advantage, making fighting a little easier. It is soldiers that win wars not bombs.

Surely you cant be serious.... At the end of the war the SU fielded the largest army man has seen.

Now for their diet. Russian soldiers ate a little more then a slice of bread a day and a cup of hot water.... I know this because I have personally spoke to more then a hand full of them and the only time that they had a "feast" was when they would raide a German Supply depot, sometimes with Germans still inside, and would actually eat with the Germans as everyone inside wanted to live Even with this diet, they still managed to enter Berlin.

As for the Allies well they were simply spoiled as far as the Soviets were concerned....... The Soviets didnt have the luxury of the Govt. bringing in entire Coca Cola factories in order to keep up morale.

Now this is pure Rubbish! Allies production and Lend Lease? When speaking of Allied production, the US would for the MOST part be the only exception as Europe was for the most part destroyed. The one thing that you are forgetting is that while the US might have had greater production it would have taken months for anything to get to Europe as traveling 4,000 miles across the Atlantic is anthing but fast and easy.

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Slava,

I would have to agree with lwd on these aspects. The Soviet Union lacked sufficient maritime forces in 1945 to carry the Army and Air Force off of the Eurasian landmass. The Soviet Navy (what was left of it) was essentially an insular navy and would not be able to conduct operations that would require a signinicant sea-lift capability. We know that the US could and did conduct large operations across vast stretches of ocean and thus could land whatever forces were needed in pretty much any location needed, and this would be enhanced following the demise of the Japanese Empire.

As far as army size was concerned, yes the Red Army was a large, strong force in May 1945, no doubt about that. But after having lost about half of the adult male population during the war, how would that bode in a "continuation war" that could drag out for another 4-5 years and casualties continued at a similar pace? The US had about the same population as the SU during that time and had "only" lost 400,000 or so prosecuting the war up til then. I also don't doubt that the Red Army would have faced similar problems in Western Europe that the Germans faced, as far as partisans were concerned, which would had placed a further drain on the army.

Diets. I agree with on the paucity of the average Soviet soldier's diet. I read Tank Rider by Evgeni Bessonov and he talked a great deal about not having enough to eat. I can't help but think that this diet would have some effect on a soldier's long-term fighting ability, whether someone is accustomed to it or not. Just like vehicles, you have to have fuel, whether it comes from eating food or using your own body's (depleted) stores.

I am glad the two nations didn't fight and I hope earnestly we can continue this pattern. We do not need to be enemies, we have a common one already.

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Best Regards,
JW

In case you're wondering, that's a Peace Pipe

Patton didn't carry on eastwards, Stalin didn't carry on westwards. If they had the sense not to do it, please don't do it yourselves vicariously. There!

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Awe shucks, I ain't a fighting Slava. I just jumped in to talk to a good friend.

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Best Regards,
JW

See this is what I call a constructive debate

Well done Jeff, keep up the good work

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Ok starting from the East The US could have invaded along the Siberian coast.
Then there is China. Nationalist China had been fighting the Communists as much as the Japanese for the last several years. The US had a significant military presence in China. With the demise of Japan at the very least the "Western" allies would have been able to transit China more than likely the Chinese would have contributed some troops.
Going to the Indian Ocean the British and to a lesser extend the US were well astablished in the Mid East. They could have launched an offensive up the Lend Lease route through Iraq/Iran.
Then there is Turkey. If things started going well for the Wesern allies they'll probably join in. They might anyway depending on how it started. In this case the Black Sea becomes a western allied lake. Even without Turkey I believe it's only capital ships that weren't allowed to transit the Bosperous.
In South Easter Europe the Western allies can also launch invasions to open up new fronts.
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This might only be the case if the SU did not have an airforce. Unfortunately this would not have been the case as SU had thousands of planes and veteran pilots. Also keep in mind that ( as history has shown )air superiority alone does not win wars, it just helps the side with this advantage, making fighting a little easier. It is soldiers that win wars not bombs.
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They may have had an air force but it was one optimised for low altitude work. It would have been outclassed at altitudes it would have had to fight at given the Western strategic bombers. With the end of Lend Lease they would also loose their primary source of high octane gasoline further hampering the performance of their aircraft. Bombing may not win wars but if it destroys the transportation infrastructure and masses of supplies it makes an offensive almost impossible and it's also hard to win a war staying primarily on the defensive.
Lets look at some numbers from: World War II casualties - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Soviets military had ~34.5M men over the course of the war but by 45 they had lost almost 9M dead or missing and 4M captured leavieng ~22M. They also suffered almsot 15M wounded some of whom would not be available for further service. The US and Commonwealth had ~22M under arms and suffered ~2M dead, wounded, and captured. So you have rough parity without even considering France, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, etc. Then if you look at populations the combined populations of the US and Commonwealth was over 530M in 1939 while that of the Soviet Union was ~180M and guess who lost more of their civilians by 45. Also consider that the US at one time planned on fielding an army of over 200 divisions. They didn't because they decided they didn't need to.
A slice of bread and a cup of hot water a day and they'd be combat ineffective in less than a month and many would probably be dead within a couple of months. The Sov