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Dangerous Dave put his foot in it, big style.

Methinks he's spent too much time watching Hollywood war movies...

btw, apologies if this has already been posted, but I couldn't find it.

In 1940 the Americans were still dealing with pacifism. It was not till the end of 1941 did they actually get involved. As some have said his parents should get a refund on that public school education.

Well it is true to a point. Effectivly we were doing a holding job until Hitler decided to attack the USSR. Once the yanks managed to enter we were basically third man that happened to have a handy base. Just look at who was supreme allied commander was it a Brit er nope.

Yes but in Europe we lost way more men than the Americans, so really aren't they the junior partners. Russia lost millions as did Germany, we lost a sizeable number and I think that the Americans lost less than 50 000 in all of the European and North African campaigns. All the Americans brought was lots of equipment. And without us their top fighter in Europe would not have been the P-51D. Without the Merlin engine it would have been restricted to ground attack missions. Then we were the ones breaking the codes and giving them jet engine technology without which they would still be way behind. Some junior partner.

Typical US, though. We invent something outstanding. They say "We want that. Gimme." And like suckers, we do. They're a kind of global playground bully.

Anyway, while the US may have provided the hardware to win the war in Europe, they had a much tougher time of it in the Pacific. And we should never forget the Russian sacrifice in Europe, too.

I can kinda see what he's getting at, he just cocked it up in the process... which could happen to anyone, frankly

Yes they did have a tougher time in the Pacific, but if you add up all the American casualties from all the wars since independence they still have not lost as many as during the civil war.

We were dependant on the Russians and Americans to help finish the war, but we were not junior partners in the way that we are in Iraq or Afghanistan. He frankly has insulted all the WWII veterans, by downplaying our role. Also on D-Day America were the junior partner with only 40% of the troops. Britain and the commonwealth made up the majority during the invasion. Then we designed and built the Mulberry harbours and if it were not for the Brits building their harbour properly that invasion could have been seriously jeopardised. This is a moronic mistake to make, especially from a politician, or are they rewriting history now as well?

I think he was talking about the grand scheme of things, how it all played out; I think he was talking in broad strokes. That's what I mean when I'm suggesting he cocked it up in the process.

Frankly, it suggests he's being/trying to be cold and logical about the whole thing, which is a lot more sensible than some of the platitudes and guff we've seen in the past. I seriously doubt he underestimates what took place then and since.

He's a twat.

I suppose it depends on how you look at it, manpower or losses wise sure, I can see his point - but then that would make the Russians the most senior partner, which I can't see the Americans accepting...

If you include civilians that would still make the Americans the junior partner. The UK lost 449,800 or 0.94% the US lost 418,500 or 0.32% and the US losses were only aggravated by the toughness of the japanese island defences.

Well yeah, but then we got our asses handed to us by the Japanese....

As did everyone else, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Koreans etc. Apart from the Russians. Also don't forget we still had a huge empire at that point to defend so were stretched.