> i am suggesting that total american contribution to ground combat is vastly exaggerated by most of the literature. through the war as a whole it amounted to about a quarter of the western allied total all up. until mid to late 1944, the american contribution was minimal, and could have been replaced with other troops. in europe their contribution really became important starting in june 1944, and in asia starting november 1944. (but by 1944 there were more french and italian and indian and polish volunteers than could be trained and equipped, so an idle side thought is that perhaps a lot of this american manpower might have been more valuably deployed as an arsenal of democracy workforce from 1942 - 1945, rather than spending years in training as infantry divisions that only got into action in 1945?) it was not until the end of 1944 when the large majority of american divisions started to make their presence felt worldwide (well, northern europe and the pacific at least, if still not the mediterannean, middle eastern or mainland asian theatres) at about the time when the european battles were mostly won, when germany was already falling apart, and when japan was trying to get the soviet union to be a go between in surrender discussions.
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