Leo makes light of the partisan struggle against Fascism, which sheds some light on his own narrowly chauvinistic interpretation of the victory. I can't object to the fact that Leo knows little of European History (which presumably does not feature greatly in his Jingoistic Civics classes), but that's no excuse for re-peddling Hollywood patriotism. For him, only the Americans saved Europe from Fascism. But the numbers say different.
295 000 American servicemen killed though out the Second World War, 13 million Russians.
In 1943 the Italian partisans put 100 000 men in the field and lost 45 000, overthrowing the Fascist regime - before they were occupied by the Americans (who put in place the assassination squad Gladio to crush the anti-fascist forces and save the country for Christian Democracy).
The Italian partisans were assisted by Tito's Yugoslav Partisans who (against Stalin's advice) liberated Belgrade from German control after pinning down 612 000 German troops, 33 Axis Divisions in 1943, long before one US or British infantryman set foot on European soil.
Similarly the Greek ELAS fighters liberated Athens until General Scobie was told to occupy Greece as a hostile power until the fascists could be reinstalled in power by Britain and American.
As Eric Hobsbawm rightly says, while the US and British forces were successfully held off in the West 'only the Soviet Armies continued to advance, and only in the Balkans - mainly in Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece - did a largely communist inspired resistance movements cause Germany, and even more Italy, serious military problems.' (The Age of Catastrophe, p 42)
And while Russians, Italians, Yugoslavs and Greeks were fighting to free their lands from fascist terror, what did the British and American 'people's war' consist of?
Well, Eisenhower contributed 100 000 men to a joint British-American force in .... North Africa! Sitting back to let Hitler slaughter the partisans, the Allies were preoccupied with securing British colonies - without regard to their political rights or independence. Britain, meanwhile was fighting a rearguard struggle to maintain White Prestige in Asia, without regard for the rights of Indians, Bengalis, Burmese or Indonesians. America meanwhile dedicated its noble efforts to crushing the upstart power in the region, Japan.
Not until partisans had driven back the fascists in the Balkans and the East did the US and British invade mainland Europe, in 1944. Their purpose? To prevent Europe from falling into the hands of the people who had begun to liberate it. -- James Heartfield