• Pons_Aelius
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      147 months ago

      I think because of German uboats hunting in the Atlantic. They were attacking so close to the US coast there were cases where ships could be seen exploding and sinking from Manhattan at night.

      It was the German uboats sinking US ships that was a factor in them joining WW1.

      • frog 🐸
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        87 months ago

        It was the German uboats sinking US ships that was a factor in them joining WW1.

        In particular the sinking of civilian ships, such as the Lusitania.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        47 months ago

        As an Aussie I often forget about the Atlantic because our world map is always Asia centered.

        Nevertheless, why did Germany bother? It isn’t like they planned to invade USA did they?

        • Pons_Aelius
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          97 months ago

          The yanks were sending supplies to the UK. Without it the brits would have run out of food, oil and ammo.

          It was called Lend Lease

          • @[email protected]OP
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            87 months ago

            TIL.

            And this from Wikipedia…

            Stalin told Nikita Khrushchev that Lend-Lease enabled the Soviet Union to defeat Germany.

          • Deebster
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            57 months ago

            They sold that stuff to the Brits (the £27bn in today’s money was only finally paid off in 2006).

            If memory serves, the US were also supplying the Nazis at the start of the war.

            I agree that US involvement was vital to winning WW2, but the idea that they won it themselves is pure American propaganda.