Whose narrative is it anyway?

As VE day came and went last week, few are asking, “Who won World War II?”

This simple question often yields a simple answer: the Allies, of course.

I posit to you the Second World War has far more complexities and nuances than taught in school. Consider why the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany in the first place.

The final straw was the latter state’s invasion of Poland. Following the conclusion of the conflict six bloody years later, Poland remained smothered under the boot of a foreign power as did the whole of Eastern Europe.

Consider again, did the Western Allies win World War II?

By the time of Eisenhower’s “Great Crusade” in Europe, Poland’s sovereignty was a long-forgotten war aim left in the dustbin of expediency. In its place was the looming threat of hundreds of Soviet divisions poised to snatch up continental Europe.

Americans typically have little understanding of the scale of the Eastern Front. According to the Oberkommando Der Wehrmacht, the German high command during WWII, 80% of German deaths occurred in engagements with the Soviet Union.

High-ranking personnel in the National Socialist regime such as Rudolf Hess and Heinrich Himmler attempted at various points to secure a separate peace with the West to focus on their war with the Soviets.

The Western Allies’ campaign against the Reich was a minor theater compared to the titanic struggle in the East.

While Stalin pressured the UK and the US to open a second front to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union, the war was arguably decided in advance of D-Day in 1944.

By this time, the Soviets had already re-taken Stalingrad, liberated Smolensk, lifted the siege of Leningrad, and were on the cusp of annihilating German Army Group Center in Operation Bagration. Moreover, the Germans had not mounted a significant offensive since the Battle of Kursk in 1943.

It was not a question of if the Soviets would prevail, but at what cost and how much of Europe would be swallowed up.

According to Russian author and former member of the USSR’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Viktor Suvorov, Joseph Stalin fully intended to invade Europe in 1941 but was interrupted by Germany’s pre-emptive assault. Suvorov asserts Stalin hoped to exploit the period’s chaos for expansion.

It ought to be mentioned that this hypothesis is somewhat on the fringe of WWII historiography.

Nevertheless, the end result of the war brought about many of Stalin’s alleged aims. After the fall of Berlin, Eastern Europe from the Baltics to the Balkans was firmly under Soviet domination.

The Western Allies were wracked with anxiety over a potential Russian conquest of the rest of Europe. American General George S. Patton controversially advocated for the rearmament of Germany to counter the looming Soviet threat.

To grasp the sheer scale of the power imbalance in Europe after Germany’s defeat, one can look to the panicked planning of Western military leaders at the time. The British Chiefs of Staff Committee assessed Soviet infantry to outnumber Allied units almost three to one.

For armored divisions and combat aircraft, the ratio was 1.57 to one and nearly two to one respectively in favor of the Russians.

American plans such as Pincher (1946) and Broiler (1947) grimly predicted the need to retreat all the way to the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain to stem a Soviet invasion, forfeiting much of the continent.

The US further estimated the Soviets could muster 240 divisions in the event of a war. American plans generously hoped to field a paltry 80 divisions in two years.

In my view, the situation in Western Europe did not look like victory in 1945. While Germany and its minor allies were defeated, the Western Allies’ position in the years following was arguably more precarious than in 1939.

The British Empire, the largest in the world, collapsed into malaise, decolonization, and internal strife. The French suffered a series of humiliating defeats in Algeria and Vietnam and several tumultuous changes of government.

The United States, while economically booming, was left to pick up the pieces of a battered Europe and the mantle of opposing the Soviets.

The Western allies had exchanged one aggressive continental power for another. Luckily, the Cold War never went hot.

The Soviet Union imploded, relieving Europe of a threat that menaced continental security since 1917.

Perhaps we can return to saying the West won World War II. One ought to consider if the victory was in 1945 or 1991— but that’s a question of narrative.

Joe McGraw is a staff writer at the Daily American Republic. He can be reached at jmcgraw@darnews.com.