(And just to balance my reference to that lowest of low points in American cultural output, I am currently reading Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate, which crushingly examines the sacrifices made by Russians…)
I want to scream and point at this chart every time I see praise for the human stories of Godzilla -1.0, a movie about the need for Imperial Japanese forces to redeem themselves for failing to protect Japan against the big, scary Americans
Don't forget that a very large number of those "military" deaths were among the MILLIONS of people who farted crosswise on a Tuesday in Stalin's Russia.
They were brought to the front, given sharpened sticks, told to charge the enemy, and shot if they didn't.
Who would argue that that French did the most to defeat the Nazis? The Resistance was heroic and brilliant, and the French are a wonderful and magnificent culture, but it's hard to form an objective argument that the French did the most to defeat the Nazis.
This. Very proud we had an active Resistance and they surely were instrumental in toppling Nazi Germany, and at a dear price, but saying they did the most would be wild overreach.
There’s a good case to be made for Nazi Germany doing the most to defeat Nazi Germany, honestly.
Not that we should remotely “hand it to them”: the better thing would’ve been to not need defeating, but for example no one else managed to engage their head of state in single combat.
The problem is that the question is vague. What does one define as "the most"? In terms of numbers of soldiers seeing action? In terms of money and effort spent? In terms of tactical/strategic importance of their operations?
You underestimate the number of British people who got their sense of the war from the sitcom "Allo! Allo!" where the French Resistance is about 6% effective.
and here's another rub... they were never 'alone'. Their colonial jewels, Canada, Australia and more, were with them every bloody minute they were 'fighting'. My grandfather left Canada in late 1939, months after 'England' declared war.
