What's the Best War Movie?

The Russian method of warfare was meat grinder. The courageous and brave died defending Stalingrad...you cannot expect an attrition rate approaching 20 times that of the other allies, to last forever.
Eventually you run out of courageous and brave young men. This would have been a war of attrition. Had America the stomach to fight the Stalinists, we would have won. Had America the stomach to sacrifice 1 - 2 miillion of it's young men to the altar of freedom? We had the capability to literally kill off an entire generation of Russian males aged 18- 34, the primary fighters in any war. They had already suffered 10-12 million war dead among the primary demographic of warfighters.

The Russians had the stomach for meat grinder warfare, life meant little, think about it, they know suffering...that's what they know. We would have had to kill off an entire generation,but strategically and technologically, we could have done so with the acceptance of our attrition rates at 4 times that faced against the Germans/Japanese. Nevertheless, I have no doubt in the war of attrition, America and the allies could have minimally driven the Russians back to their borders leaving Eastern Europe free from the terrors of Stalinism..an equal form of evil to the Reich's facism.

You already said the truth in an earlier post...Americans were war weary. We did not have the stomach to do what would have needed to be done to defeat the Russians. Literally killing them off as a people, at least the young male population who do the warfighting.

 

Not one Soviet bomber flew over Germany until 1945. You are forgetting the efforts of the Briitish Bomber Command and American Army Air Force bomber wings. You are forgetting the efforts of British/Polish fighter pilots that took on Gorng's finest in the Battle of Britain.

What the Soviets did do, was hand Germany it's first real defeat; however at a huge cost in manpower. It takes 9 months in the womb and 18 years to make a soldier, a year or so to train them. Eventually you run out of young men if you send enough of them to their grave. You can make a tank in a day, you can't make a soldier in a day.

As already alluded, many of the Soviet countries previously loyal to the Stalinists may not have necessarily fought for them against the allies who would have treated them not as conquered but as liberated. Initially the Germans were greeted as liberators, until they managed to start hunting for Jews and killing civilians in the process. The allies had no interest in conquering Soviet satellite nations, no interest in rounding up Jews...I suspect many Soviets might have switched sides against the Russians. Certainly the Poles, who regarded the Russians as equivalent to the Germans.

Defeating the Soviets would have been difficult. This would require many to switch sides against the Russians.

 

All good points, but how long would it take the US to restructure its air power? How long would it take to take down the Russian logistic systems enough to slow their military. Do not forget the Soviets were in Berlin, how long do you think it would take them to push through the Allied forces and take France? They had advantage in man power, in tanks, in artillery, and tactical air power was pretty balanced. I would bet the Soviets would have been able to take Continental Europe before the Americans could react with enough force. Especially without the winter weather to slow them down. In reality I think both sides would need enormous political will to muster support from their people for another huge war, where the end result was questionable. Stalin would be on a limb even with his purges he was still in danger of a coup, and pushing for WW3 would have tricky.

 

War brings out the best and the worst of mankind, showing the best can be the best showing the worst can be the best.

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If they had just left out the hokey romance thing and go the planes depicted accurately and consistently.........for instance they show a TBD being shot down but then show a Wildcat on the water with the pilot, supposed to be George Gay, getting out.

 

How do you pick just one when there are so many.

Left out off the top of my Head

Patton
The Lost Battalion
We Were Soldiers Once and Young
All Quiet on the Western Front ( both versions but especially the first)
The Caine Mutiny
Paths of Glory
Fail Safe
Hunt for Red October
In Harms Way
Wings

And on and on and on.......

 

Major Payne!

 

Enemy At The Gates.

A good reminder Nazi Germany devoted 90% of its' military effort against the Soviets
and 10%, (yes only ten) against the "allies".

The West never appreciated the disproportionate devastation the USSR absorbed compared to any ally nation.
This film shows the brutality it required to defeat the Nazis.

Good cast. Rachel Weiss a cutey.

Clip of crossing the Volga

[video=youtube;8yOBCGwMpeo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yOBCGwMpeo[/video]

Moi

r > g

No ​

 

Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Gone With The Wind, and Stripes. I also really like Downfall, it's the one where the "Hitler just found out..." memes came from. There was also this Iraqi war movie on Youtube, from the 80's, that was about the Iraq/Iran war. It was horrible, but it was interesting to observe the narrative.

 

Why has nobody mentioned Sam Peckinpahs Cross Of Iron yet ? In my view that has the best armoured attack scene from any movie and up until Saving Private Ryan had the most brutal hand to hand action scenes . All this back in 1977 too ! Terrific script as well. Check this out !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqk1BjkaD4A

 

I'll have to see that.

 

The Soviets would never have won without American and British Lend lease, plus the Eastern Front was 1,900 miles long, that's the equivalent from Maine to Florida...Logistics played a key role and the Soviets used American railroad equipment, American trucks..and food of course. Even with that the USSR suffered heavy casualties, both military and civilian. There is no doubt they paid the higher price in suffering, but even militarily the other Allies still proved invaluable in defeating the Reich in German airspace. The USSR played a negligible role in defeating Germany's U-Boats which harassed ships crossing the Atlantic carrying both supplies and personnel.

The USSR did destroy 80% of the Reich's military, and they deserve recognition for this, however I woujldn't unequivocally state that alone won the war in the European theater of operations.

 

BS, you have nothing to back up such rubbish. The Soviets would have won without land lease, the program did help but was in no way a game changer.

 

Read any serious historical take on the Eastern Front.
The United States contracted Lend-Lease agreements with more than 30 countries, dispensing some $50 billion in assistance It was in fact a game changer.

 

MOD EDIT - Rule 3
but I did a lot of research into this subject, and
I read books upon books about WW2, and know a thing or two about the war.
You can spew your Ronald Rambo bs pseudo history all you want, but the fact is that the Soviet Union would have won the war with or without US involvement.

 

There's a Russian movie called "Come and See" (1985) - if you ever wanted to see just how brutal the Eastern Front was, you owe it to yourself to watch this one. If you want to see epic scale, you can't beat "The Battle of Neretva" (1969) - Yul Brynner, Orson Welles, Curt Jürgens and literally battalions of extras. Honorable mention to "The Battle of Algiers" (1966) - that's the one to get your thinking cap on.

 

Stalin disagrees with you.
http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/LendL.html


Sent on February 18, 1942

J. V. STALIN TO F. ROOSEVELT
I have received your message about U.S. arms deliveries in January and February. I stress that it is now, when the peoples of the Soviet Union and their Army are bending their energies to throw the Hitler troops back by a tenacious offensive, that U.S. deliveries, including tanks and aircraft, are essential for our common cause and our further success.


October 7, 1942

FROM PREMIER STALIN TO THE PRESIDENT, Mr. ROOSEVELT
We are badly in need of increased deliveries of modern fighter aircraft-such as Aircobras-and certain other supplies. It should be borne in mind that the Kittyhawk is no match for the modern German fighter.

As regards the situation at the front, you are undoubtedly aware that in recent months our position in the South, particularly in the Stalingrad area, has deteriorated due to shortage of aircraft, mostly fighters. The Germans have bigger stocks of aircraft than we anticipated. In the South they have at least a twofold superiority in the air, which makes it impossible for us to protect our troops. War experience has shown that the bravest troops are helpless unless protected against air attack.


The scale of Lend Lease was strategically vital:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease#US_deliveries_to_the_USSR


In total, the US deliveries through Lend-Lease amounted to $11 billion in materials: over 400,000 jeeps and trucks; 12,000 armored vehicles (including 7,000 tanks, about 1,386[25] of which were M3 Lees and 4,102 M4 Shermans);[26] 11,400 aircraft (4,719 of which were Bell P-39 Airacobras)[27] and 1.75 million tons of food.[28]

Roughly 17.5 million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies, and food were shipped from the Western Hemisphere to the USSR, 94% coming from the US. For comparison, a total of 22 million tons landed in Europe to supply American forces from January 1942 to May 1945. It has been estimated that American deliveries to the USSR through the Persian Corridor alone were sufficient, by US Army standards, to maintain sixty combat divisions in the line.


Read that again. Allied aid to Russia was on a scale to keep 60 US divisions equipped and supplied.

U.S. division were roughly twice the size of Soviet divisions (20,000 men vs. 10,000 men or so).

So the Allies were responsible for equipping and supplying roughly 120 Russian divisions.

The Russians started the war with about 200 divisions and eventually fielded 400. So Lend-Lease supplied roughly 1/3 of the Soviet military -- not to mention massive shipments of aircraft, as well as food for the Russian people and even raw materials like aluminum for Russia's own factories.

Supplies alone don't win a war. The Russians fought hard and bled heavily. But without Lend-Lease, they likely would have been screwed.

 

Have you ever looked at footage or pictures taken on the Western Front and noticed that all of those russian trucks were Studebakers ?

Without lend lease, it would have been horse drawn wagons supply the Soviet troops.

Did Russia Really Go It Alone? How Lend-Lease Helped the Soviets Defeat the Germans - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/did-russi...s-defeat-the-germans.htm#sthash.um5FHcNa.dpuf

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/us-soviet

 

Thanks will do.

 

Baloney, they would have starved and run out of bullets and machines. Those were US trucks, jeeps and tanks carrying the food that fed their armies and the Russian people.Then our attack in Africa froze reinforcements in eastern Europe and Stalingrad.

 

My picks would include Stalag 17, The Great Escape and Stalingrad.

 

Not for nothing - and I know we've strayed off the topic of this thread - but I've got to figure the German war effort on the Eastern Front was pretty much doomed with the Soviet Winter Counteroffensive of 1941 (before any lend-lease aid reached the front). In the aftermath, Hitler sacked Von Brauchitsch and took personal command of the war effort. Doesn't matter what happened after that - Hitler was going to drive the Wehrmacht into the ground. Lend-lease enabled the Soviets to maintain a more vigorous offensive capability, but even without it, the most the Germans could have hoped for was a protracted and bloody stalemate, ie, the Rzhev Meatgrinder.

 

It doesn't matter.
By numbers, geography & length of supply lines, and raw materials the Asiatic would defeat the Aryans!

Decades ago, TIME magazine had an issue dedicated to WW2. I noticed for
Every 10 Nazis the Soviets killed, the allies killed 1.
For every 10 Nazi tanks the Soviets took out, the allies took out, 1.
AS much as we love to glorify the "Good War" we neglect, the USSR took a hit ten times greater.


Supplies from the West helped the USSR defeat Hitlerism sooner.
With no supplies from the West, the USSR would have defeated Hilterism later.

Germany did not have the materials or the wise leadership to prevail.
I stand by, Enemy at the Gate(!) as the best.

Moi

r > g

No ​