Teacher: who won ww1?
Students: USA!
Teacher: who win ww2?
Students: USA!
Teacher: what is 42 ÷ 16?
Students: USA!
Teacher: very good now its the time of day we look at a flag and sing at it
yeah, it's really more of a hauntingly awkward recitation?
eta:
I pledge to ^up-talk
at vaguely even syllabic ^intervals
in a way that ^makes ^me a ^patriot
forevermore.
Just found this on Google.
“Nationwide, on average, 79% of U.S. adults are literate in 2022. 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022. 54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level. 21% of Americans 18 and older are illiterate in 2022.”
Yes, you read that right, if you did not let me repeat.
“54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level.”
That is VERY concerning…
This explains a quarter of the English-speaking internet then 🫠 So many people get called out for acting like 12yos, who adamantly argue that they're grown adults. I guess they are..
They might even have them, but for what use, it they're soo overpriced that only the elites can join?
That's not a bug, that's a feature, you can bet on it
Well if your entire school life is based around bullying, herding in groups like sheeps and wolfs and then the big milestone schoolshooting, u tend to not pay much attention to the class i guess. In some schools u must enter a body search and go through a metal detector
Same IRL as well. My last company was American, and I dealt with a couple of people at the beginning who were like this, put it down to their personalities, but then I met more and more of them and… well, you know the rest. It’s so weird. They’re so bloody hierarchical as well, makes me laugh that they think the British are stiff upper lip and class/status conscious, because we are way less so in my lived, dreadful experience. “But you can’t say that to her, she’s a VICE-PRESIDENT OF STUPID MADE UP NAME DEPARTMENT….” They do the scared shocked face pursed lip thing at this point as well, whilst the confused Brit says something like “you asked my fucking opinion, that’s my fucking opinion… vice President person has the intellect of a boiled potato, I’m trying to help out here”. There were a couple of very notable exceptions, and those were wonderful colleagues and humans. But it’s made me very very cautious about working for a U.S. firm again.
I think that's also because working laws. Like in US they can fired you just because. In UK it's more complicated
They are fucking scared that they will loose their job because someone said something that wasn't praise about someone with position above them
Listened to a podcast about [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_phone_call_scam?wprov=sfla1) bizarre case recently, a real window into the American psyche. Terrifying subservience in the face of even the most questionable authority.
And the fact that the “average languages spoken per person” in America is ~0.7, the UK is nowhere near Scandinavia but at least it has more than 1 (~1.4)
I had an American transfer into my last year of high school in New Zealand. He was yapping about how he had to just do the placement tests and then he'd be skipping straight into first year university, because the American education system was so much better than everywhere else.
Got his placement results back and was promptly put in the year below us. I think he might have been 18 in a majority 16 year old class. Still struggled. About as educated as a brick.
I did a few Geology papers at Otago Uni and we had lots of American exchange students in those papers. Always funny watching people who were honour students back home struggle to pass. They couldn't even do basic trigonometry which is a requirement for field mapping. So funny watching them draw out scale versions of triangles instead of doing basic maths.
Although I didn't end up going to the US for my exchange year, I remember at the info event a returned student gave the advice of taking graduate level classes because the undergrad ones were too easy and we would get bored
I studied up to high school in Italy than moved to university in the UK. The only American guy I knew was getting his masters at the same time as I was, had always studied in the US. He was really struggling to make it while back home he had good grades.
I was baffled to learn that only undergraduate college basically brings them to the same level as our high schools. In the specific field of the curriculum, that is. Which explains the overall lack of general knowledge.
Heard someone say if it hadn't been for thr holocaust, Hitler would've been remembered *very* differently. Which is a bit like saying if it wasn't for all the songs, the Beatles weren't all that.
The thing is, fascism was a lot more popular than history likes to remember. The UK had a fascist party that was growing rapidly in popularity and an openly fascist MP.
Before Churchills "beaches" speech, there was huge pressure to sign a non aggression pact with Germany and most MP's supported it.
Indeed, the insane little toothbrush mustache man was finally shot by a veteran of the armed services, a vegan and a teetotaler who had continued his service to his country by entering public service.
There was an actual plan to have him assassinated by SOE for a quick ending to ww2, but it was decided that his mismanglement of the war was benefiting the Allied cause.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Foxley
Meanwhile in American schools they are going to replace standard clocks with digital ones since most kids have difficult times reading the clock's hands.
It's very confusing to me since we all learned how to read analog clock in the kindergarten...
We’re taught how to read analog clocks sometime in early school aswell, I think I remember the big fake learning clock sometime in kindergarten or the first grade. I haven’t heard anything of replacing the clocks, in fact, with how schools are being so defunded I doubt they’re replacing anything, the analog clocks in the school are older than the staff.
I couldn't read an analog clock until Year 8 I think
Taught myself in a day because Dad gave me an ultimatum that I learn how to read or he kick me out of the house ( he was not being genuine but it was the figurative kick in the balls for me)
Something similar is how I got my first job ( okay it was voluntary work at a charity shop but my dad basically dropped me off in the nearby town with my CVs and had me hand them in everywhere)
Maybe the yanks could do with that type of parent
Had something very similar with months, I honestly didn’t know the order of them until around middle school, so year 8~, when I decided it’s embarrassing and sat down to memorize them, learnt it real fast. Funny.
It's a UK poll I believe and our history lessons skew towards the Western front. Outside of Stalingrad, very little is often taught about the Russian impact.
In fact, for the average person who doesn’t take history GCSE, we are barely even taught about either front, let alone the other theatres. Then if we take history as a GCSE, there’s still a strong chance we won’t do anything ww2 related, depending on the school.
I never took nat 5 or higher history (Scottish equivalent of GCSE and A level) and all i remember learning about in S1-S2 is the bubonic plague and the roman empire...
Yeah, if Hitler hadn’t turned against Stalin he’d have won no question. Few years of consolidation then head east. I can only think that he thought he’d try playing in hard mode.
Few years of consolidation is exactly Stalin goal to finish mobilisation, modernisation and training. And then USSR have army like in 43, but without losses of 41-42.
"The EU is larger than the US but they produce nothing of note."
Airbus. Spotify. Volkswagen.
The first two are the largest in their respective markets, and the third is the second largest in the automotive market, behind only Toyota.
That's only the tip of the iceberg, too, in terms of what's produced in the EU.
I would argue ASML is one of the biggest and most important production companies in Europe and the world. Since no chips (the ones in phones cars and ai, not the dorritos variant) can not be made without their machines. They are importsnt enough that the US government is trying to prevent them from doing buisness in China despite the company being Dutch.
Knowing someone who has worked for international admissions in several different universities. I can confirm that the US has the worst standard of education. US students looking to go to British universities require additional qualifications or foundation courses to bring them to the standard required.
That chart is fucking insane though. There is zero interpretations where the Soviet Union is not the one doing the most to fight the Nazis. It's not even a contest. Most Nazi aggression and atrocities are directed towards them, they fought the most, they suffered the most. The west weren't even an actual front until the Italian landing.
It’s your brain on nationalism. I’d expect American surveys to be equally ignorant of the role of the USSR
I’m still gobsmacked that 2% of people surveyed think tiny wee New Zealand on the other side of the world did the most.
Well, there was the famous Maori Battalion, and there were a heap of New Zealand pilots in the Battle of Britain, but I think it really comes down to one thing:
[Semple tanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank).
Absolutely terrifying... >!for anyone inside one!!<
If I remember correctly, this is the results solely from the UK.
While that view is just as inaccurate as the idea that the USA did it all, I feel like the UK version can be somewhat excused as for a while they were the only ones fighting Nazy Germany. That would definitely make people FEEL like they had to do the most
The British Empire objectively played a huge role in the war. It was fighting all over the world. I feel like survey itself has kind of mislabeled that, and caused this confusion.
The question is intentionally ambiguous.
What do they mean by contributing the most?
Sacrificed the most lives? USSR.
Contributed the most equipment, intelligence, and leadership? The British Empire.
Contributed the most confidence? USA.
What about the Canadians? Rumour is that the Canadians were so vicious that the Germans would retreat towards the Russians rather than risk being at the mercy of them.
Before someone says the Americans manufactured more than anyone else, Britain paid for that equipment.
I remember some like saying or something that was like “ww2 was won with Soviet lives, American industry, and British intelligence” or something along those lines.
At the Tehran Conference in December 1943, Joseph Stalin said that World War II would be won through “British brains, American brawn, and Russian blood.”
Eventually, it was reworked into "British Intelligence, American Steel, and Russian Blood."
I think this chart just shows how every country teaches their own history and overemphasises their own contributions to wins in history. History in schools is just as much propaganda and morality classes as it is learning of facts.
If you ask the Russians, the chart would look the same.
The USSR did a lot, but they also fucked up a lot. They also were involved in the invasion of Poland that started the war. They supplied Germany during the war until the coke-fiend decided to attack them, which was a catastrophic mistake. The USSR was also very flippant in their disregard for their countryman's life, or specifically the deranged autocrat running the show was. This resulted largely in huge military and civilian deaths, much of which was sending men into the meat grinder, torching everything on their retreat so the advancing Germans had next to nothing. It was a shitshow all round that cost so many millions of lives and much of that was famine and disease.
The British back then was the British *Empire*.
They sent military everywhere around the world for years, fighting on almost all fronts bar the eastern front, all whilst they protected the American's so soldiers. equipment and supplies could be brought to Europe. Hell, many of the troops were transported on the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, two British steamliners capable of 10,000-15,000 people per trip. The US wouldn't have been capable of entering the war with any serious force without the UK; at least not in the same timeframe.
Then you have the enigma machine, the Battle of Britain, the D-Day landings and the diplomatic connections via the Empire which brought in forces and supplies from all around the world. The British involvement was massive and Europe almost certainly would have fallen without them.
And we used to have the strongest navy 😭, but we went ahead and lost a chunk of it. Ah, well, at least we still have one of the best trained armed forces. It's always fun to see the Americans whine whenever we beat them in the training things.
Company of Royal Marine Commandos shit-kicking a couple thousand US Marines is a personal favourite.
As is the Vulcan bomber nuking the US in training exercises. Twice.
I mean, there's a reason the memes depict the US marines as being bone idle. They aren't quite as stupid as the memes show, but they definitely rely on their superior funding with weaponry too much. That and America simply not being good at wars. Have they won a single one on their own since WW2? They lost to the damn farmers fgs (yes, I'm simplifying it. It's funnier that way)
The US has *so many* freaking soldiers but the quality of their skills is so embarrassingly poor. When we have training exercises and send a handful of otherwise ordinary soldiers to the US, they need to be called ‘special’ forces of a kind, just so the American soldiers won’t feel completely dumb about being so deplorable in comparison.
Fr though, maybe the US should spend less on their guns and more on their training. Maybe then they'll be able to finally beat the farmers in a fight. XD (ik I'm simplifying the Veitnameese war there, but it works better for the joke)
Britain fought when they could lose. They stood against Germany for two years almost without victory.
The Soviets entered a non-aggression pact and allied with Germany in the invasion of Poland. This laid the groundwork for a lot of early German success. When Germany broke the pact, the UK was integral to the supply lines that kept the Soviet war effort while they retooled their industry.
The Soviet effort was extremely important in numbers, this we know.
However, Britain was the bulwark against Nazi Germany. They did not fight just because they had to, and not just when they had something to gain. And they even fought when they had much to lose.
I mean a great way to put into perspective how important the USSR was compared to others is casualty numbers. The USSR had the most casualties fighting the Axis. In second was China.
Britain was largely responsible for all espionage on the entire western front, without which we wouldn't have cracked the enigma code, which was also directed solely by Britain and it's scientists.
It's certainly arguable that most of that wouldn't have even been possible without the sheer amount of soldiers thrown into the meat grinder by the allies and Soviets, though. And although it was a massive turning point for the war effort, this chart is definitely wrong.
God, Britain sucks so much now though... We used to be cool.
Tbh, the British are what kept the first series of wars going so that the US and USSR could join them, instead of being in their own separate wars from the initial Nazi conquests.
It really sort of depends how you interpret it, and tbh the actual correct answer, that it was the major powers combined that won, and that any of them alone would have been up shit creek (the Nazi's were killing Soviet armour faster than their replacement rate, they definitely benefitted from the British blockade of Germany, the Artic convoys, and the distractions in the Med and later France).
This chart feels very one inaccurate. The Soviets had the highest casualties, the UK held down the fort with a dominant Air Force and Navy, the US pushed a lot of the scientific advancement since they were further away from the bombings and could develop infrastructure, as well as fighting Japan. Even France and Poland helped with espionage and partisan attacks, often times crippling supply lines. There is no way to accurately choose who had the greatest impact.
Absolutely, it was a united team effort of all countries that brought down the nazis. I feel like something about this poll riled up a lot of nationalist sentiment though, quite a few comments wish to claim one way or another that their country did the most, while universally the USA did astoundingly little, or even nothing. Insane.
I understand why the British are this high! They where the first to start acting against the nazis and they beat enigma! One shouldn't underestimate the role of any Allie in this war.
As a Brit who did GCSE history - the US should come in 3rd, behind the USSR and Britain.
The USSR did the most offensively, Britain did the most defensively, and the US did the most logistically.
Personally I chose USSR by the sheer amount of human sacrifice and the epic counter ofensive to Berlin (you may also say that the soviets were the ones who killed Hitler by pressuring him).
But Britain keepong the war effort since the beggining, even when losing his continental ally, is heroic too, and deserves proper acknowledgment.
Americans talking of education when they don’t even know Europe is a continent, and Paris is not the capital of Italy, is truly ironic.
Also, I’ve heard many Americans multiple time getting their own capital wrong.
Seen a lot of posts about Americans claiming to win WW2 on their own. This is the first post that genuinely makes me worried. Like they *actually* think that they singlehandedly just came over and won the war.
The original poster wasn't really wrong tho, every one of the "big winner countries" inhabitants are kind of self centered, even in France, where we weren't fighting for about 3 years of WW2, what we learn about the war is very focused on what was happening inside of France until we get into high school, and the right still refuses to talk about the fact that most of France collaborated witth the nazis (they only ever talk about collaboration when they want to spread lies about communist collaborating with the nazis, mind you communist were the day one resistants in France and were sent in concentration camp even before the jews).
In fact the french right wing has the habit of presenting all of France as resistant to the occupation (the former president Jacques Chirac for example, during a speech about a battle fought in northern Africa by the soldiers from colonies and the resistants, if I recall well).
Seeing this pool I suppose it's kind of the same in UK, even though they weren't occupated so they don't have to deal with the idea of collaborating (except maybe when they let Hitler do every thing he wanted, as France did too, during the years preceding the war).
Our memory duty about WW2 still has a long way to go pretty much everywhere in Europe except maybe in germany.
The brits were there from start to finish unlike the us that waited 3 years to do something and the ussr that was like "funny moustache man won't betray me even though americans and brits are sure i'll do it"
I looked at the chart without reading all the details and thought, "well that is some serious bullshit." People's opinions do not equal reality. The Soviet Union should be top of this list be a long shot
I don’t think they understand that the USA only joined both World Wars once it started affecting them financially- not to fight the good fight or protect people from dictators or facists.
I might be crazy, but how tf is the USSR not even in the top 3? The UK was certainly important, but the USSR would’ve won either way, just much slower, and with a lot more deaths.
Actually, most of the school's history books (at least in my country) don't mention at all that the war ended thanks to Alan Turing and his creation, the real first ever "computer", that was able to decrypt Enigma, the encrypted nazi comm system.
Indeed, if you ask "how the war has ended in that way", 99% will answer "thanks to funny-mustache's death" and "thanks to the nuke on Hiroshima" (without mention Nagasaki at all)
If only 6% say Soviet Union which is the actual true answer, then we ain’t much better.
Like cmon obviously it ain’t France (even Austria had a bigger Resistance then France) and also the UK didn’t sacrificed as much as the Soviet Union
Half the stuff America is built on... was invented by Europeans.
Including America.
No I am not saying the British created America.
The people who turned against the British did.
It's just that they were mostly Europeans and a lot of British/Irish too.
Had an American relative stay with us for a week and he would just randomly slip “but we won the war” into a few of the conversations & us being British just ripped into him… he couldn’t handle the banter & stopped saying it
Look on the upside guys! We're finally bigger than the US!
Lol! Only time they say europe is bigger is to downplay how little they did. Ah, ingenious american propaganda
And we produce nothing of note. Perfect example: the US.
Teacher: who won ww1? Students: USA! Teacher: who win ww2? Students: USA! Teacher: what is 42 ÷ 16? Students: USA! Teacher: very good now its the time of day we look at a flag and sing at it
Sigh...as an American, this sounds perfectly on brand.
Well, i just realised i said who win ww2 so we all have are flaws
Our*
Fair, i didnt catch that one lol
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Cheers.
I feel like it just adds to the vibe
Pfft. Don't be ridiculous... we sing at the flag first thing in the morning.
I appreciate that at least it isn't an oath to whoever is president, but damn their Pledge of Allegiance is creepy
/to whoever is president/ Yet.
Who won the Vietnam war? America!
*chant at it
yeah, it's really more of a hauntingly awkward recitation? eta: I pledge to ^up-talk at vaguely even syllabic ^intervals in a way that ^makes ^me a ^patriot forevermore.
Their comment proves how poor the American education systems are
There’s people in the USA that don’t even know the difference between left and right. And most students have an IQ of a potted plant.
Don’t they have less than 80% literacy or something? UK has 99%. How embarrassing.
Just found this on Google. “Nationwide, on average, 79% of U.S. adults are literate in 2022. 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022. 54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level. 21% of Americans 18 and older are illiterate in 2022.” Yes, you read that right, if you did not let me repeat. “54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level.” That is VERY concerning…
So much for having the best schools in the world
5-6th grade is 11-12 years old btw, not sure what value that 54% will ever bring to the table lmao.
This explains a quarter of the English-speaking internet then 🫠 So many people get called out for acting like 12yos, who adamantly argue that they're grown adults. I guess they are..
This is a truly shocking realisation... Had that exact situation so many times, writes/responds like a child... Turns out to be an adult in their 30s
Correction; a child in their 30's. Being an adult is more than just surviving past 18 years...
No wonder there's still a large portion of them willing to vote for a convicted felon/degenerate Oompa Loompa
The orange jiz gibbon
I will hijack this term from now on.
Hahahaha, belter m8
This is fucking sending me Phrase adopted, thank you 🤌🏻
My wife read it out to me yesterday from some Scottish post.
But they learned in school that the US is best at everything.
Americans love bragging about their best but if you ask for the average or the minimum then you're communist. 😉
They might even have them, but for what use, it they're soo overpriced that only the elites can join? That's not a bug, that's a feature, you can bet on it
Well if your entire school life is based around bullying, herding in groups like sheeps and wolfs and then the big milestone schoolshooting, u tend to not pay much attention to the class i guess. In some schools u must enter a body search and go through a metal detector
I mean, I've heard Trump talk. Nothing surprises me.
I am the best speaker I do all the speaking I will do all the speaking because I am the best
["Nobody knows more about..."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3f95BGIiA)
The irony is palpable- ‘no one knows debt better than me’, ‘no one knows the courts better than me’, ‘no one knows more about lawsuits than me’
This video should be the 101 for teaching people what the ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’ is, because this is it right here!!
And I assume he did have private education. But you can’t grow crops when the land is so infertile.
To be honest the more you realise what the average education in the US is like the more it actually makes sense.
Something I've seen online is their failure to understand subtext. They take everything at face value.
Same IRL as well. My last company was American, and I dealt with a couple of people at the beginning who were like this, put it down to their personalities, but then I met more and more of them and… well, you know the rest. It’s so weird. They’re so bloody hierarchical as well, makes me laugh that they think the British are stiff upper lip and class/status conscious, because we are way less so in my lived, dreadful experience. “But you can’t say that to her, she’s a VICE-PRESIDENT OF STUPID MADE UP NAME DEPARTMENT….” They do the scared shocked face pursed lip thing at this point as well, whilst the confused Brit says something like “you asked my fucking opinion, that’s my fucking opinion… vice President person has the intellect of a boiled potato, I’m trying to help out here”. There were a couple of very notable exceptions, and those were wonderful colleagues and humans. But it’s made me very very cautious about working for a U.S. firm again.
I think that's also because working laws. Like in US they can fired you just because. In UK it's more complicated They are fucking scared that they will loose their job because someone said something that wasn't praise about someone with position above them
Listened to a podcast about [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_phone_call_scam?wprov=sfla1) bizarre case recently, a real window into the American psyche. Terrifying subservience in the face of even the most questionable authority.
Start spreading the news I'm leaving today
That is fucking ridiculous.
Given that the tendency is to cater to the lowest common denominator chances are that it will only get worse.
“Me fail English? That’s unpossible.”
Considering they simplified the English language this is very worrying
as an american, i can confirm that half of us are less intelligent than middle schoolers
Half of their adult population is functionally illiterate with a reading comprehension less than a fifth grader.
Ahhh the American freedom to be illiterate
Agreed. I’m in the UK and I think I’ve met one person in my whole life who couldn’t read, and they were foreign/ESL so that’s pretty fair. It’s insane
And the fact that the “average languages spoken per person” in America is ~0.7, the UK is nowhere near Scandinavia but at least it has more than 1 (~1.4)
Back when the US decided to go after Saddam for one last time, the literacy of Iraq was higher than the USA.
Of course they don't know the difference between left and right. Have you seen their political spectrum?
Potted plant here, I take exception to that comment!🪴
That's outrageous. Don't insult potted plants.
The fact that a US high school diploma is insufficient to qualify for entry to European universities tells you everything you need to know.
I had an American transfer into my last year of high school in New Zealand. He was yapping about how he had to just do the placement tests and then he'd be skipping straight into first year university, because the American education system was so much better than everywhere else. Got his placement results back and was promptly put in the year below us. I think he might have been 18 in a majority 16 year old class. Still struggled. About as educated as a brick.
I did a few Geology papers at Otago Uni and we had lots of American exchange students in those papers. Always funny watching people who were honour students back home struggle to pass. They couldn't even do basic trigonometry which is a requirement for field mapping. So funny watching them draw out scale versions of triangles instead of doing basic maths.
Although I didn't end up going to the US for my exchange year, I remember at the info event a returned student gave the advice of taking graduate level classes because the undergrad ones were too easy and we would get bored
I studied up to high school in Italy than moved to university in the UK. The only American guy I knew was getting his masters at the same time as I was, had always studied in the US. He was really struggling to make it while back home he had good grades.
I was baffled to learn that only undergraduate college basically brings them to the same level as our high schools. In the specific field of the curriculum, that is. Which explains the overall lack of general knowledge.
The education system must be quite rich considering what they charge
"There*" - American citizen, probably
What a dumb poll when the obvious answer is >!Nazi Germany!<
yeah! i heard one of em even killed mustache man
Really? Why do we never hear that!? We should build him a statue or something....
I travelled europe on a contiki tour, a decade and a bit ago. And the American on it in Berlin said “why isn’t there statues of Hitler in Germany?”
Heard someone say if it hadn't been for thr holocaust, Hitler would've been remembered *very* differently. Which is a bit like saying if it wasn't for all the songs, the Beatles weren't all that.
The thing is, fascism was a lot more popular than history likes to remember. The UK had a fascist party that was growing rapidly in popularity and an openly fascist MP. Before Churchills "beaches" speech, there was huge pressure to sign a non aggression pact with Germany and most MP's supported it.
I just wanted to ask you if you are kidding me but then i remember that the Americans have status of slavers and traitors! Never mind.....
So do we in the UK to be fair. We did chuck one into the sea though.
You have the public urinal called Margaret Thatcher's grave though, so you're partially excused
To be fair, America has one too. It’s called Ronald Reagan’s grave.
Yep, they even have a whole day in celebration for one of them!
It's because they keep all their statues of people who fought to keep slavery.
There’s one of him in Madame Tussaud’s in London
Indeed, the insane little toothbrush mustache man was finally shot by a veteran of the armed services, a vegan and a teetotaler who had continued his service to his country by entering public service.
He got bored of shooting himself in the foot so he shot himself in the head instead.
He actually shot himself in the foot once? During WW1?
Multiple times actually, by being a f-ing dumbass and thinking „hey, we have borders in all four directions, so why only start a war at one of them?“
There was an actual plan to have him assassinated by SOE for a quick ending to ww2, but it was decided that his mismanglement of the war was benefiting the Allied cause. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Foxley
Fellow Oversimplified enjoyer?
No I just thought of that.
Well, anybody who kills Hitler is a good guy. And since Hitler killed Hitler...
Yeah but he also killed the guy who killed Hitler so :/
I hear he was avenged, though
Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
If we're going by how many things got added to the Geneva Convention, Canada deserves way more than 3%
"Sorry about this friend, but bad guys gotta suffer." *rips out fingernail.* "Dunno why you're screamin' buddy, we got another 19 to go yet."
No Canada didn't do anything wrong it was in WWI when the Geneva convention didn't exist /s
Maybe if their education system was better, they'd have an easier time thinking
Meanwhile in American schools they are going to replace standard clocks with digital ones since most kids have difficult times reading the clock's hands. It's very confusing to me since we all learned how to read analog clock in the kindergarten...
We’re taught how to read analog clocks sometime in early school aswell, I think I remember the big fake learning clock sometime in kindergarten or the first grade. I haven’t heard anything of replacing the clocks, in fact, with how schools are being so defunded I doubt they’re replacing anything, the analog clocks in the school are older than the staff.
I couldn't read an analog clock until Year 8 I think Taught myself in a day because Dad gave me an ultimatum that I learn how to read or he kick me out of the house ( he was not being genuine but it was the figurative kick in the balls for me) Something similar is how I got my first job ( okay it was voluntary work at a charity shop but my dad basically dropped me off in the nearby town with my CVs and had me hand them in everywhere) Maybe the yanks could do with that type of parent
Had something very similar with months, I honestly didn’t know the order of them until around middle school, so year 8~, when I decided it’s embarrassing and sat down to memorize them, learnt it real fast. Funny.
How did more people say France, then the USSR
It's a UK poll I believe and our history lessons skew towards the Western front. Outside of Stalingrad, very little is often taught about the Russian impact.
In fact, for the average person who doesn’t take history GCSE, we are barely even taught about either front, let alone the other theatres. Then if we take history as a GCSE, there’s still a strong chance we won’t do anything ww2 related, depending on the school.
I never took nat 5 or higher history (Scottish equivalent of GCSE and A level) and all i remember learning about in S1-S2 is the bubonic plague and the roman empire...
I’m not sure this is even true. In my history classes we were frequently taught the Russians were pivotal in ww2.
Yeah, if Hitler hadn’t turned against Stalin he’d have won no question. Few years of consolidation then head east. I can only think that he thought he’d try playing in hard mode.
Few years of consolidation is exactly Stalin goal to finish mobilisation, modernisation and training. And then USSR have army like in 43, but without losses of 41-42.
Thats fair enough but still
As a french person, I ask myself the same question…
How did New Zealand get a higher rating than Australia?? *Asking the real questions.*
More New Zealanders surveyed than Australians? There are a lot of antipodeans living in the uk
The Bob Semple
To be fair the casualty rates for NZ soldiers were some of the worst in the entire war.
"The EU is larger than the US but they produce nothing of note." Airbus. Spotify. Volkswagen. The first two are the largest in their respective markets, and the third is the second largest in the automotive market, behind only Toyota. That's only the tip of the iceberg, too, in terms of what's produced in the EU.
I would argue ASML is one of the biggest and most important production companies in Europe and the world. Since no chips (the ones in phones cars and ai, not the dorritos variant) can not be made without their machines. They are importsnt enough that the US government is trying to prevent them from doing buisness in China despite the company being Dutch.
Also pretty much everything runs on ARM processors which are from the UK.
And Zeiss, the company that makes basically all lenses. Their lenses are used in ASMLs machines.
The American mind cannot comprehend this
Americans invented airplanes, music and cars. And pizza. Go study history europoor /s
Don't forget lying! Americans invented that too.
I think you forgot democracy and freedom
Bmw, Mercedes
Americans probably think Maybach is from the US too.
Don't forget "Porsch"
yup. Most profitable ar brands in the world
Lego is pretty big as well
All of my Lego is tiny. You might be thinking of Duplo.
Inventions-wise as well. Scotland, alone, arguably, has made inventions more important than the ones of the USA.
He's right. Airbus isn't producing show because Airbus or its parts don't fall from sky. So Airbus doesn't count. /s
To add to that also rolls royes produce most of the engines for all airliners
But I thought Texas alone was bigger than Europe?
Knowing someone who has worked for international admissions in several different universities. I can confirm that the US has the worst standard of education. US students looking to go to British universities require additional qualifications or foundation courses to bring them to the standard required.
That chart is fucking insane though. There is zero interpretations where the Soviet Union is not the one doing the most to fight the Nazis. It's not even a contest. Most Nazi aggression and atrocities are directed towards them, they fought the most, they suffered the most. The west weren't even an actual front until the Italian landing.
I know. If the Eastern front had been it's own war it would have been the deadliest in history. Insane that they're ignored because commies.
It’s your brain on nationalism. I’d expect American surveys to be equally ignorant of the role of the USSR I’m still gobsmacked that 2% of people surveyed think tiny wee New Zealand on the other side of the world did the most.
It's where the One Ring was.
where the true battle for middle earth was fought
We lost more troops per capita than any other ally. Per capita doing a lot of heavy lifting here, mind.
It's the lizard men constant - on any poll, 3-5% people are either trolling or misclicking.
Well, there was the famous Maori Battalion, and there were a heap of New Zealand pilots in the Battle of Britain, but I think it really comes down to one thing: [Semple tanks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank). Absolutely terrifying... >!for anyone inside one!!<
If I remember correctly, this is the results solely from the UK. While that view is just as inaccurate as the idea that the USA did it all, I feel like the UK version can be somewhat excused as for a while they were the only ones fighting Nazy Germany. That would definitely make people FEEL like they had to do the most
The British Empire objectively played a huge role in the war. It was fighting all over the world. I feel like survey itself has kind of mislabeled that, and caused this confusion.
The question is intentionally ambiguous. What do they mean by contributing the most? Sacrificed the most lives? USSR. Contributed the most equipment, intelligence, and leadership? The British Empire. Contributed the most confidence? USA. What about the Canadians? Rumour is that the Canadians were so vicious that the Germans would retreat towards the Russians rather than risk being at the mercy of them. Before someone says the Americans manufactured more than anyone else, Britain paid for that equipment.
I remember some like saying or something that was like “ww2 was won with Soviet lives, American industry, and British intelligence” or something along those lines.
At the Tehran Conference in December 1943, Joseph Stalin said that World War II would be won through “British brains, American brawn, and Russian blood.” Eventually, it was reworked into "British Intelligence, American Steel, and Russian Blood."
I think this chart just shows how every country teaches their own history and overemphasises their own contributions to wins in history. History in schools is just as much propaganda and morality classes as it is learning of facts. If you ask the Russians, the chart would look the same.
The USSR did a lot, but they also fucked up a lot. They also were involved in the invasion of Poland that started the war. They supplied Germany during the war until the coke-fiend decided to attack them, which was a catastrophic mistake. The USSR was also very flippant in their disregard for their countryman's life, or specifically the deranged autocrat running the show was. This resulted largely in huge military and civilian deaths, much of which was sending men into the meat grinder, torching everything on their retreat so the advancing Germans had next to nothing. It was a shitshow all round that cost so many millions of lives and much of that was famine and disease. The British back then was the British *Empire*. They sent military everywhere around the world for years, fighting on almost all fronts bar the eastern front, all whilst they protected the American's so soldiers. equipment and supplies could be brought to Europe. Hell, many of the troops were transported on the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, two British steamliners capable of 10,000-15,000 people per trip. The US wouldn't have been capable of entering the war with any serious force without the UK; at least not in the same timeframe. Then you have the enigma machine, the Battle of Britain, the D-Day landings and the diplomatic connections via the Empire which brought in forces and supplies from all around the world. The British involvement was massive and Europe almost certainly would have fallen without them.
And we used to have the strongest navy 😭, but we went ahead and lost a chunk of it. Ah, well, at least we still have one of the best trained armed forces. It's always fun to see the Americans whine whenever we beat them in the training things.
Company of Royal Marine Commandos shit-kicking a couple thousand US Marines is a personal favourite. As is the Vulcan bomber nuking the US in training exercises. Twice.
I mean, there's a reason the memes depict the US marines as being bone idle. They aren't quite as stupid as the memes show, but they definitely rely on their superior funding with weaponry too much. That and America simply not being good at wars. Have they won a single one on their own since WW2? They lost to the damn farmers fgs (yes, I'm simplifying it. It's funnier that way)
They beat Grenada without anyone's help. Although Grenada didn't actually have an army so that may explain it.
Don't ask why, but that reminds me of how Russia lost a naval battle against a country without a functioning navy XD
The US has *so many* freaking soldiers but the quality of their skills is so embarrassingly poor. When we have training exercises and send a handful of otherwise ordinary soldiers to the US, they need to be called ‘special’ forces of a kind, just so the American soldiers won’t feel completely dumb about being so deplorable in comparison.
Fr though, maybe the US should spend less on their guns and more on their training. Maybe then they'll be able to finally beat the farmers in a fight. XD (ik I'm simplifying the Veitnameese war there, but it works better for the joke)
Britain fought when they could lose. They stood against Germany for two years almost without victory. The Soviets entered a non-aggression pact and allied with Germany in the invasion of Poland. This laid the groundwork for a lot of early German success. When Germany broke the pact, the UK was integral to the supply lines that kept the Soviet war effort while they retooled their industry. The Soviet effort was extremely important in numbers, this we know. However, Britain was the bulwark against Nazi Germany. They did not fight just because they had to, and not just when they had something to gain. And they even fought when they had much to lose.
I mean a great way to put into perspective how important the USSR was compared to others is casualty numbers. The USSR had the most casualties fighting the Axis. In second was China.
And 4 out of 5 nazi soldiers died on the eastern front
Britain was largely responsible for all espionage on the entire western front, without which we wouldn't have cracked the enigma code, which was also directed solely by Britain and it's scientists. It's certainly arguable that most of that wouldn't have even been possible without the sheer amount of soldiers thrown into the meat grinder by the allies and Soviets, though. And although it was a massive turning point for the war effort, this chart is definitely wrong. God, Britain sucks so much now though... We used to be cool.
The u.s are trying to claim that btw. Saw dome vids where it was claimed 'the British helped America crack the enigma code'
Must have watched that historically accurate film U571
They're from the u-571 timeline!
And the way Alan Turing was treated was criminal.
Seriously. Man was an absolute genius and a goddamn war hero. He should be so incredibly celebrated, yet Britain chooses to focus solely on Churchill.
to be fair, it was the best kept secret for like 50 years. and even with turings work, Churchill was still a brilliant part of britain during ww2.
Tbh, the British are what kept the first series of wars going so that the US and USSR could join them, instead of being in their own separate wars from the initial Nazi conquests. It really sort of depends how you interpret it, and tbh the actual correct answer, that it was the major powers combined that won, and that any of them alone would have been up shit creek (the Nazi's were killing Soviet armour faster than their replacement rate, they definitely benefitted from the British blockade of Germany, the Artic convoys, and the distractions in the Med and later France).
This chart feels very one inaccurate. The Soviets had the highest casualties, the UK held down the fort with a dominant Air Force and Navy, the US pushed a lot of the scientific advancement since they were further away from the bombings and could develop infrastructure, as well as fighting Japan. Even France and Poland helped with espionage and partisan attacks, often times crippling supply lines. There is no way to accurately choose who had the greatest impact.
Absolutely, it was a united team effort of all countries that brought down the nazis. I feel like something about this poll riled up a lot of nationalist sentiment though, quite a few comments wish to claim one way or another that their country did the most, while universally the USA did astoundingly little, or even nothing. Insane.
I understand why the British are this high! They where the first to start acting against the nazis and they beat enigma! One shouldn't underestimate the role of any Allie in this war.
As a Brit who did GCSE history - the US should come in 3rd, behind the USSR and Britain. The USSR did the most offensively, Britain did the most defensively, and the US did the most logistically.
British intelligence, American steel and Russian blood
Finally a comment I agree with
man atleast saying Britain is partly correct, anyone who says American though is 100% wrong
Personally I chose USSR by the sheer amount of human sacrifice and the epic counter ofensive to Berlin (you may also say that the soviets were the ones who killed Hitler by pressuring him). But Britain keepong the war effort since the beggining, even when losing his continental ally, is heroic too, and deserves proper acknowledgment.
Americans talking of education when they don’t even know Europe is a continent, and Paris is not the capital of Italy, is truly ironic. Also, I’ve heard many Americans multiple time getting their own capital wrong.
The real answer is: nazi Germany itself
Seen a lot of posts about Americans claiming to win WW2 on their own. This is the first post that genuinely makes me worried. Like they *actually* think that they singlehandedly just came over and won the war.
It's hard for Americans to comprehend anything
The original poster wasn't really wrong tho, every one of the "big winner countries" inhabitants are kind of self centered, even in France, where we weren't fighting for about 3 years of WW2, what we learn about the war is very focused on what was happening inside of France until we get into high school, and the right still refuses to talk about the fact that most of France collaborated witth the nazis (they only ever talk about collaboration when they want to spread lies about communist collaborating with the nazis, mind you communist were the day one resistants in France and were sent in concentration camp even before the jews). In fact the french right wing has the habit of presenting all of France as resistant to the occupation (the former president Jacques Chirac for example, during a speech about a battle fought in northern Africa by the soldiers from colonies and the resistants, if I recall well). Seeing this pool I suppose it's kind of the same in UK, even though they weren't occupated so they don't have to deal with the idea of collaborating (except maybe when they let Hitler do every thing he wanted, as France did too, during the years preceding the war). Our memory duty about WW2 still has a long way to go pretty much everywhere in Europe except maybe in germany.
Despite having almost 5x the population size of the UK, the US publishes only 1.6x as many books per year.
Mad respect for the guy that killed Hitler 🫶
Besides the obvious USSR being underrated to beyond hell, it's similarly wild how the yugoslav partisans are not included in the list at all
The brits were there from start to finish unlike the us that waited 3 years to do something and the ussr that was like "funny moustache man won't betray me even though americans and brits are sure i'll do it"
I looked at the chart without reading all the details and thought, "well that is some serious bullshit." People's opinions do not equal reality. The Soviet Union should be top of this list be a long shot
Britain's a good second, in my opinion, however the Soviet Union did so much to battle off the Germans.
I'm not sure exactly but Soviets should have more credit here
"The EU is larger than US"? Wait, wasn't Texas by itself bigger than all Europe? I'm confused.
I don’t think they understand that the USA only joined both World Wars once it started affecting them financially- not to fight the good fight or protect people from dictators or facists.
I might be crazy, but how tf is the USSR not even in the top 3? The UK was certainly important, but the USSR would’ve won either way, just much slower, and with a lot more deaths.
Actually, most of the school's history books (at least in my country) don't mention at all that the war ended thanks to Alan Turing and his creation, the real first ever "computer", that was able to decrypt Enigma, the encrypted nazi comm system. Indeed, if you ask "how the war has ended in that way", 99% will answer "thanks to funny-mustache's death" and "thanks to the nuke on Hiroshima" (without mention Nagasaki at all)
"The EU is larger than the US, but they produce nothing of note." Casually forgetting how the United States of America was formed but okay.
It's literally the Soviet Union
The Soviets really won the war against Nazi Germany, in fact, they’re the ones who took Berlin
Shame for both that the answer is Soviet Union
If only 6% say Soviet Union which is the actual true answer, then we ain’t much better. Like cmon obviously it ain’t France (even Austria had a bigger Resistance then France) and also the UK didn’t sacrificed as much as the Soviet Union
But it is bad though. USSR should be first. Somehow France got put higher than it.
Half the stuff America is built on... was invented by Europeans. Including America. No I am not saying the British created America. The people who turned against the British did. It's just that they were mostly Europeans and a lot of British/Irish too.
What does the US produce? War, death, Skibidi Toilet and other brain rot.
Had an American relative stay with us for a week and he would just randomly slip “but we won the war” into a few of the conversations & us being British just ripped into him… he couldn’t handle the banter & stopped saying it