God, I get SO [bleep] TIRED of the never-ending BS about who "won" WWII and the claims by some.
The British, Canadian and Australian/New Zealand nations decided to declare war on Nazi Germany because of Hitler's "Lebensraum" which violated an old treaty that England had signed with Poland almost a century prior to the outset of the war in Europe.
We were outnumbered, outgunned and not prepared, although the signs of the on-coming struggle were only TOO obvious for years prior to 1939. My maternal grandfather, a Canadian officer with the 21st.Batt. C.E.F., wounded at Courcelette, the final battle of the slaughter known as "The Somme" (420,00 Empire soldiers fell) and, very badly, at the epitome of battle horrors, a place called "Passchendaele", (440.000 fell) openly told my then teenaged mother circa his early death in 1938, due to his wounds, that the war was coming and he intended to volunteer,again and expected that men like him would form the nucleus of the senior field commanders. i.e. Colonels and Brigadiers.
Yet, the Empire/Commonwealth governments did NOT prepare and the US did not either, much like Canada in the past 40+ years due to the curse of "multicultural" and "liberal" governments. Soooo, when it started, we were in an unenviable position as my late father and uncles, ALL volunteers for "active overseas service" as THEIR fathers, etc, had done in 1914, often told me.
The Poles, while making a contribution, would NOT have been able to do so ahd not WE given them the war materiels, training and shelter in the UK they needed to participate. They did fairly well, in Normandy, against the ferocious "SS-Hitler Jugend", but, were losing until Canadians arrived, killed many of the Krauts and joined forces to win that engagement.
So, while the various minor participants helped, the reality of the situation is that WWII, was "won" by Brits, Canucks, Aussies, Kiwis and Yanks....and, while we were winning the "Battle of the Atlantic", the entry of the USA WAS the factor that largely decided the final outcome, as we of the Commonwealth did not have the manpower to successfully invade continental Yurp...and, the Krauts were superb, formidable soldiers, so, who knows?
I think that the Brits and the Krauts would have HAD to eventually come to some terms to end the slaughter, had the USA not entered the fray and THAT would have been a rather ugly situation. As it was, we should have attacked the Russkies at the surrender by Jodl and kept on going to the Pacific.
