but by June '44 Germany was already fatally wounded. What doomed Germany in WWII was invading Russia. It was, from Wiki, "the largest military confrontation in history" and I'll bet you never learned that in school. If you went to school during the Cold War, I know you didn't. It was barely mentioned in text books.

Not counting all casualties, but just battle deaths alone, Germany lost 4-5 million soldiers, Soviet Union, 10-11 million. Civilian deaths 20-27 million. From what I've read about the Easter Front I'm struck by just how grim and horrible it was. Those are the words that come to mind. Grim and horrible.

But "+1" hardly seems to do justice to 35 million dead.

This is always a weird day for me. Not many people can say with absolute certainty where their grandfather was 70 years ago.

history.

a breath of fresh air.

just never happened, I think the outcome of the war would have been the same - with many more Soviet casualties, of course.

What might have changed is the look of Europe. After defeating and occupying Germany, there would have been no reason for their army not to continue on to the rest of Western Europe. The history of Europe after the war could have been much different.

Which Russia followed to the tee.

whether military, or including civilians, were incurred by the Soviet Union. Their contribution to defeating Hitler shouldn't be forgotten.