# Which Allied Country made the qreatest sacrifices during WWII?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-allied-country-made-the-qreatest-sacrifices-during-wwii/681625>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 18, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-allied-country-made-the-qreatest-sacrifices-during-wwii/681625 "2014-02-18T15:38:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2014, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-allied-country-made-the-qreatest-sacrifices-during-wwii/681625/81 "2014-02-20T17:15:03Z")

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> [@Human\_Action](#):
>
> Doesn’t that directly contradict your position that the Soviet Union made the greatest sacrifice because of the number, and not rate, of casualties?

Call it a counterexample to an absurd position.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-allied-country-made-the-qreatest-sacrifices-during-wwii/681625/82 "2014-02-21T20:30:45Z")

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> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> But does “Produced the greatest amount” equate to “Made the greatest sacrifices”?

No. I think people bring it up just because it’s an interesting sidebar to the question.

An important aspect of the US approach to the war was to, as far as possible, replace “spending lives” with “spending money and resources.” This is not necessarily to imply other countries were callous with the lives of their citizens; the US had the resources to adopt such an approach. It was a highly unusual situation, historically, economically, and militarily.

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**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-allied-country-made-the-qreatest-sacrifices-during-wwii/681625/83 "2014-02-21T22:15:02Z")

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> [@Odesio](#):
>
> In terms of number of people killed it would have to be the Soviet Union, hands down.

absolutely. In terms of putting together a coalition and holding on until the coalition was assembled, England. In terms of producing supplies, the US and Canada. In terms of applying technology in the most cost effective way, England.

If not for Churchill and some very smart people we would have been severely trounced by a vastly superior German war machine. the collaborative effort behind code breaking was a coalition thing of beauty. If not for Henry Ford’s legacy we could not build 1 b-24 an hour. The UK gave us the time to build a war machine that no amount of superior technology could survive. Russia used those supplies and a lot of sacrifice to grind up German assets on a second front.

I’m amazed that it took so long to defeat Germany and wonder how badly it would have gone if Hitler wasn’t a complete logistical moron. He mismanaged about every single asset he had.

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