Why do people say that the British didn't do a thing in WW2?

[CloakedOne]

That's always sad when credit is not provided to those who clearly deserve it.

 

[KitsunetheFox]

I've never heard anyone say anything about the British doing nothing in WW2. I've heard people say that the addition of America's forces and tactics did swing the war in our favor, America didn't join in until 1941 if I remember correctly, so we held off Hitler for a good two years along with Russia and France.

While my WW2 knowledge stems mainly from how America affected the war and how the war affected Germany (GCSE History is selective in its topics), there is a heck of a lot of evidence to say that everyone involved in WW2 did a veritable bucket-load for the war effort, and that not one country involved did nothing.

 

[Ledan]

No, we didn't do anything apart from pretty much holding back everyone in North Africa, being the only nation in Europe who remained standing and fighting while the Americans remained isolationist and we had to withstand the might of the Nazi war machine alone, cracking the ENIGMA code, contributing heavily to D-Day, Overlord, and in fact every operation apart from the Americans offensive on Japan.

Nope, Britain was useless in World War II

We Swedes remained standing as well + Spain

 

[soapyshooter]

Your teacher is a biased whore. The British held their own and fought off Germans in North Africa. They also took part in the normandy landings along with Canadians and helped defeat Italy.Tell your teacher to get his/her head out of his/her ass.

I am an American BTW.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

Well, the British successfully stopped the Germans in North Africa, contributed a vast amount to D-Day and Operation Overlord, and fought tooth and nail in Burma and India. They also cracked the ENIGMA code, which was one of the most significant turning points of the war.

Really, saying that any side didn't do anything is just naive.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the two, D-Day and Operation Overlord that is, were one and the same (sorry if it's already been said)

Anyway, OT they did. I'm doing it in school now, and Britain played a massive part in WW2, so maybe your history teacher is somewhat predjudiced

 

[Vortigar]

As a Canadian I greatly appreciate the comment and although most of our veterans are gone now I'm sure they would do it again in a heartbeat. Are you from the Netherlands or France if I may ask?

I'm Dutch, from Apeldoorn to be exact, a bit North of Arnhem, the target of the infamous operation Market Garden. Apeldoorn was liberated on 17 april 1945, so we just had the celebration last week. Funny that this thread should pop up exactly at this time.

This year was the last time they invited the veterans over, after 65 years there are indeed very few left and even fewer (?) are able to make the journey.

ps. wow this thread racked up the posts!

 

[Kyprioth]

I think the misunderstanding most likely comes from the fact that if America didn't stop being isolationist, Britain would have fallen sooner or later. They just didn't really stand a chance numbers wise against the rest of Europe. It's silly though, since without their valiant struggle, the world would look a lot different now. It's hard to think of a group in recent history that was that evil.

 

[dallan262]

also the normandy landings the americans fucked up royally thats why it made such a good movie

but yeah we all did our part to win

 

[xXAsherahXx]

If you want a country that didn't do anything except help the Nazis. Look no further than France and the Vichy government. All they did was get steamrolled and separated. The Vichy government handed over Jews to the Nazis and barely impeded German domination with their so-called rebel factions. WWII is a major reason why we say the French can't fight. Although they did get steamrolled earlier in the Franco-Prussian war and again in Vietnam.

Britain did all of what others on this forum said they did and they also repeatedly warned America of the Pearl Harbor bombing. Britain and Russia did most of the work in my opinion. America just tipped the scales to the Allies favor.

 

[creatiwe]

Well, the British successfully stopped the Germans in North Africa, contributed a vast amount to D-Day and Operation Overlord,

operation overlord WAS the codename of D-day

Really? I wasn't aware, I thought that Overlord was the invasion of Northern France as a whole, D-Day was just the day of the landings. My mistake, it seems.

whait, now i remember. during the planning of D-day, overlord was a word in a crossword, bu also coincidentily a codename for a plan and so they thought that they had a mole. therefore they discussed never using the d-day plans. sory mai baad

 

[twaddle]

my fellow brits please stand with me. "IF YOU WON THE WAR, STAND UP!"

 

[AndyRock]

I reckon we did pretty well for such a small country

 

[captaincabbage]

Because most people are american and they're all self righteous douches who think their only good wartime moment in history is a blank cheque to war with any other country in the world without anyone complaining. If you can't guess from my searing hot sarcasm, nobody likes america.

Right. Most people are American. And you are misusing sarcasm

I don't know what American textbooks you all have been reading, but I suspect that they were American history books. You know, the class were one learns about the (short, some who are not me would say insignificant) history of America. Which is one class. However, we have a second required class (GASP!) were we learn about world history. Which we New York State types take before the American one. And we certainly learn all about the contributions of the other countries to World War Two. You know, most of us Americans learned about the fact that countries other than us were involved in World War Two before we read this thread.

EDIT: Guy above beat me to it...

Y'know in my old highschool (in australia) we has Australian History, World History and American History. Why the hell would they teach us about American History? We're close to the opposite side of the world to them, not to mention that most australians dislike america passionately.
I'm not going to dispute what american schools teach kids, since I have no idea honestly, but I don't want to hear about america in my class, in my school, in my country. Yes they are an important superpower, but you know who else is? China. We have no classes called Chinese History. Why is that?

I dunno, I'm just kinda ranting now

 

[trueluigi7]

Wow people are very serious about British and WWII...and as far as I know the British were one of biggest groups I mean you have two sides the Allies and the Axis, The Allies are mainly The British, U.S.S.R, France, and U.S. and the Axis are mainly Germany, Italy, and Japan. There were many other countries also involved but they were small countries. I don't feel like ranting enough people already did, already 578 people.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Wow people are very serious about British and WWII...and as far as I know the British were one of biggest groups I mean you have two sides the Allies and the Axis, The Allies are mainly The British, U.S.S.R, France, and U.S. and the Axis are mainly Germany, Italy, and Japan. There were many other countries also involved but they were small countries. I don't feel like ranting enough people already did, already 578 people.

No one ever gives India the props it deserves.

 

[trueluigi7]

Wow people are very serious about British and WWII...and as far as I know the British were one of biggest groups I mean you have two sides the Allies and the Axis, The Allies are mainly The British, U.S.S.R, France, and U.S. and the Axis are mainly Germany, Italy, and Japan. There were many other countries also involved but they were small countries. I don't feel like ranting enough people already did, already 578 people.

No one ever gives India the props it deserves.

Exactly...I forgot about them...I can't remember anyone else either

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Replace "British" with "French" and I'd agree more.

But OT: America took a lot of the fame, despite Britian's good leadership, helpful ideas, and aid in reclaiming Europe.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Exactly...I forgot about them...I can't remember anyone else either

Could be a dangerous thing to do with it being ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand today.

 

[MoonPenguin]

I've actually never heard the argument "Britain did nothing during World War II."

It seems like this has devolved into a thread about how much everyone hates America. No surprise there. Did America help win the war? Sure. So did Russia, Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and any number of other European countries. Is America a big, bad bully that wants the rest of world's lunch money? Only if the cafeteria is serving pizza. Mmmm....pizza.

Someone mentioned that Spain remained standing...

As WWII was kicking off in 1939, Spain was finishing up a civil war. It was pretty brutal. The victors received a good deal of help from Fascists and Nazis in Italy and Germany. They were officially neutral, much like the United States was officially neutral. They supplied material goods to Germany and Italy in exchange for continued support in maintaining the regime. They also wanted to sell their goods to what appeared to be the dominant European powers in order to help their economy recover. Long story short, they decided to stay neutral once the tide started turning. So yes, Spain stayed afloat; but Spain stayed afloat because Germany had better things to do.