From: Convoy Magazine (convoymagazine@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Dec 02 2004 - 10:09:54 PST
Gee Steve, giving kinda short shrift to some, eg
Canada ?
I mean after all, although Canada was in many respects
mostly an agricultural nation at the start of the war,
Canada nonetheless supplied the major % of the
aluminium for the allied war effort, certainly vast
amounts of petroleum products, huge amounts of
resources in terms of things like wood, coal,
minerals.. and FOOD, lots and lots of it, all of this
a couple of years before the US got involved. Of
course we had a huge textile contribution making
uniforms for all Canadian forces and also the
Commonwealth.
Then of course we supplied almost a million fighting
vehicles, trucks and armour, even tanks (note the
Sherman employed designs taken from the CAnadian RAM
tank. Vehicles which served in every theatre of the
war!
Canada had the 3rd biggest Navy, 4th biggest
airforce,-fighters-bombers-trainers- and created the
worlds largest aircrew training programme, huge
medical, optical, communication research and
development and production (note that Atom bomb devt
came from England to Canada, before eventually moving
to US), mobile radar innovations, made millions of
light weapons from handguns to LMG, and HMG, billions
of bullets and shells, many many thousands of light
AA, heavy AA, AT, and field artillery-notably the
famous 25pdr, ship cannon, and on and on...
all from a mere 11 million population!
Also, one million served in uniform which if you do
the math is just about everybody who possible could
serve and very probably the highest per-capita
participation of all the allies..
Also given the huge loss of equipment at Dunkirk, the
Canadian guns and vehicles already in Britain were
just about all Britain had to face off against a
possible invasion. And with all markets cut off since
the fall of the continent, without Canadian help in
resources, there may not have been an England to
defend.
NOW, that's not to take away from the fact that once
the US entered, as the most economically powerful
nation, the US production surpassed everybody and it
certainly helped to overcome the enemy.
But please just remember, you won WITH the allies
England, Canada, the ANZACs, South Africa, India,
Russia, (free) Poles Czechs etc etc, not alone.
PS- oh yes,,,....and in spite of Gen DeGaulle. teehee
cheers
> >I trust that the WE ,refers to the Allies ?
>
> Absolutely. In the case of direct military impact
> on the collective
> victory in Europe, I'd rank the Soviet Union tops,
> US second, Britain
> next, Commonwealth (as a collective group) after,
> France, Poland, and
> other smaller nations following up after in terms of
> overall contribution
> level to the victory. However, without US
> industrial production, food,
> and material backing up the Allies I don't think
> victory could have been
> achieved. Or at least not as "quickly" or
> "painlessly" as it happened.
>
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