History /
Are Germans going to pay for WW2? [180]
The soviets got to eastern Europe before the Allies. Aside from having another war what else could be done?
LOL,good luck getting a sensible answer to that one :)
Ive often had the feeling there is some perception in Poland that somehow all was doom and gloom there in 45 but roses and wine in the rest of (non Soviet sphere) Europe. Yes,pre war the UK had been the mighty Empire,one third of the world under the crown,but,after 6 long years of war(on all fronts around the entire world) the country was half starved and bankrupt. One thing I hear in retort to that is,"well britain got the Marshall plan aid money" sorry,no it didnt,not a penny in post war reconstruction.What we had were huge debts to pay back,starting immedietly to the US and a country to reconstruct,Warsaw was not the only city to feel the germans bombs...
Our armed forces were exhausted,yes,we may always have had allies alongside us but for 3 years essentially we were going it alone,footing the bill too in money and blood,by 45 the barrel had been scraped raw in terms of manpower for the forces and esentialy industry,as witnessed by the fact that thousands of Poles got jobs and a new life here after the war.
Really,what do those who say britian should have done something expect? A full scale war that,quite frankly in 1945 would have led to all of Europe being under soviet domination as the wests forces were no where near a match for the huge soviet forces by this time.Someone mentioned the A bomb,well,the only 2 A bombs in the world had been used,counting that out as an option for a good few months,besides,by 45 the world was sick of slaughter,so were many Poles,even if now its not fashionable to admit it,after all a civil war raged there in full till 47 and spluttered on into the 50s,you cant have a civil war without to opposing sides of the same nationality,ie plenty of Poles were satisfied with,or activly supportive of the status quo in the post war period.
edit after seeing the above...
blah blah blah...simple fact,USSR not ocupied Poland was the Big Guy in tthe eyes of the western allies, the war wasnt won by rigidly sticking honerably to handshake agreements it was won by real politic,ie,hhhmmmm,so,whos toes we gonna step on,a few thousand exiled Poles completly armed and equiped by us or the might of the USSR???? Which option is likely to lead to the deaths of hundreds and thousands more of our people,not to mention millions of others around the world,and which action wont????? In the case of the US and UK there is a reason why we have not been ocupied in hundreds of years and you guys make a habit out of it,its called realisim,we leave our romantisism to books and bedrooms,not war.
