Who would you say was the most important 'leader' during World War 2 (WW2)?

~You can eliminate Roosevelt and Churchill immediately. Neither they nor their respective nations had much to do with the eventual outcome of the war.

That leaves Hitler and Stalin. The nod has to go to Stalin, simply because he won. It was Stalin's understanding of Blitzkrieg that led to the downfall of the Third Reich. He knew that Blitzkrieg tactics, while all but unstoppable in the initial phase, was not designed to hold large expanses of occupied lands while continuing the offensive. He knew that if he allowed the Heer Army to advance along a thousand mile front for a thousand miles into Russia, that logistics would doom the invaders.

Thus, Stalin ordered a fighting retreat from the onslaught of Barbarossa, while he moved his factories behind the relative safety of the Urals and got them into full production. At the same time, he built his defenses at the places where he intended to make his stand and from which he planned to launch his counter-offensive. Places like Moscow, Stalingrad and Leningrad. When the defensive bastions were reached, the German advance ground to a halt. When the Germans were defeated at Moscow and Stalingrad, he launched Operations Jupiter, Uranus and Mars. The outcome was decided then and there, and the Red Army's inevitable victory was secured at Smolensk and Kursk. General Winter played a very minor role, and was instrumental in Zhukov's defeat in Operation Mars. However, even in failure, Mars forced the Germans to redeploy their entire invasion force and to redraw their overall war strategy and redefine their objectives.

By the time the British and American troops landed in Italy, the best German troops were long since dead, German leadership had become all but totally ineffective and the outcome of the war had been carved in stone.

Hitler was not solely responsible for the war. Remember, Stalin attacked Poland within days after Case White began and the French and UK declared war on Germany (but not the USSR). Hitler did not want war with the UK, the US or France. His quest for Lebensraum was directed East and he wanted an alliance with the UK more than anything. He believed that reincorporating Nordic Teutonic peoples in Western Europe (in Scandinavia, Poland, the Low Countries, Austria and Czechoslovakia, but excluding the British and French, was akin to the imperialist yearnings of the US during the Manifest Destiny days, but with the ethnic and historic precedent of the Holy Roman Empire to justify his whims) and he made it clear from Mein Kampf on that he intended to rid the world of communism (he hated and feared communists far more than he hated Jews) and to expand the Greater German Empire across Poland and the Ukraine into Western Russia. He was willing to co-exist with his Teutonic cousins in France, the UK, the US, Spain, Portugal and Italy and wanted to forge an alliance with Yugoslavia (once he eradicated the Serbs) and Romania. Only when he took on the Soviet Bear were his plans thwarted.

But for Josef Stalin and the Red Army, Nazi Germany likely would have won the war and nothing the US/UK could do would have changed that. Look at the battles, the orders of battle and the casualties. Overlord and the Normandy Invasion was a minor skirmish in comparison to dozens of battles and operations in the east. Rommel and von Rundstedt had fewer than 300,000 men to meet the June 6 landings, and half of them could not be released into the battle in case the Normandy landings were, in fact, a ruse for the anticipated real invasion at Calais. By contrast, Paulus surrendered around 300,000 men with the Sixth Army after suffering at least that many casualties before the surrender. At Kursk, the Germans had almost a million troops actively in the field, facing off against 1.3 million Soviets. Meanwhile, German and Soviet armies more than a million men strong were getting ready to face off in the Dneiper Campaign and also at Smolensk. More German troops died and/or were captured at Stalingrad and Moscow than the combined strength faced by the UK/US forces during the entire war from Africa through Sicily and Italy to France. Perhaps that is why the Red Army suffered more than 10 MILLION KIA on the Eastern Front (not to mention at least 15 million civilians) while the US and UK combined, in all services and in all theaters, including Africa, Sicily, Italy, Europe, the Atlantic, the Pacific, India and Asia lost fewer than 1 million between them.

Important Leaders Of World War 2

Definitely Churchill.

At a time when the British government and people were willing to surrender,or at least agree a negotiated peace with Hitler, Churchill rallied Britain and continued the fight.For a whole year Britain stood alone, fighting both Italy and Germany.Not until the German invasion of Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour did Britain have any new allies in WW2.Without Churchill's and Britain's determination to fight on, Germany would almost certainly have won the war - even with the best will in the world, a US amphibious invasion of Europe from across the Atlantic would have been impractical,to say the least.

Further, Churchill immediately offered aid to USSR following the German invasion of Russia, sending weapons and war materiel;he also convinced Roosevelt to do the same once USA joined the war.This aid probably saved the Russians from defeat in 1942,again preventing a German victory in WW2.

Finally, the idea of the conference meetings between the Allied leaders at Casablanca,Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam was Churchill's, not only to co-ordinate a global Allied strategy, but to help engender trust and cooperation between the Allies while they were fighting a common enemy.

So, overall, by keeping Britain in the war as the only country fighting the Germans for a whole year,from the Summer of 1940 to the Summer of 1941, Churchill prevented a German victory in WW2.This makes him the most important leader of WW2, on any side and in any country.

Hitler during the war and Stalin after the war. Hitler was an evil man who committed some of the worst atrocities in human history, but you cant ignore the fact that the european conflict centred on hitler. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met together to discuss how to defeat hitler (amongst other things).

Hitler managed to subdue virtually all of continental europe and was such a threat, that communist and western leaders united against him. I know stalin had to considering his country was facing destruction, but the point stands.

Churchill was a good war time leader, but was just one of the number of pieces that led to hitlers downfall. The battle of britain did not destroy the Nazis, merely stopping them from invading britain. Roosevelt really came into play towards the middle/end of the war, and many of the US' generals had a large part to play as well. The US' strategy whittled away at the edges of the Nazi empire, but did not destroy it utterly, the way the USSR did. When the allies landed in Normandy, Hitler was already losing, most of his forces desperately trying to halt the soviets to the east.

Stalin, i would say, was nearly as important, the USSR played the biggest part in the destruction of the third reich, taking on the majority of the Nazi military forces and winning. Stalin needed the help of his general Zhukov to win the battle of Stalingrad, the most important battle of WW2 that turned the tide.

Hitler though was the Nazi party. He was the centre that held it together. He started WW2 and took on 3 most powerful nations in the world (not a clever thing to do!). The Nazis were the biggest threat to the free world, and it was up to the rest of the world to stop them. His name is more famous than every other on that list, which i know is not a good thing, but is true nonetheless.

roosevelt - no. the us only joined in 1944. they saved the allies, undoubtedly, but mainly because of the men and the resources not the leadership. arguably the us's most important (and barbaric) act was the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki and roosevelt didn't even do that, he died.

churchill - could be. if it wasnt for his inspiration and courage britain wouldn't have been able to hold off germany in the battle of britain, which was a big turning point in the war.

stalin - i don't think so. if it wasn't for the red army germany would have won, but it was as much because germany were held up 2 months in operation barbarossa (invasion of russia) and ended up fighting in the freezing winter that they lost there. stalin and his actions during the war were more important after the war than during it.

hitler - probably. he started it all with his invasions of czechoslovakia and poland. he as a leader had a real impact and say in what his troops did and believed, he really had complete control over them. if it wasn't for hitler the whole thing would have never happened, and he made few mistakes - but the ones he did make were costly

Stalin,he made a deal with Hitler to divi up Poland if Hitler invaded,so Stalin was Hitlers back up man. Hitler with out him the war would never had been possible due to the robing of Germany by the allies of ww1(except America) the European allies of ww1 gave no other choice to Germany but to rebel against the looting of Germany.,Churchill because he stood firm against Germany and Russia,he also ask America for help to defeat Germany,and probably the most important of all was Roosevelt decision to supply the Europeans with an almost inexhaustible supply of material to defeat the Germans,after the war a lot of groups were eager to eliminate the German war machine,they polluted the population with brain washing tactics and had people occupy Germany that were considered to be inferior racially,but they had to submit to it or starve,its an evil mark on American history and was devastating for the civilians of Germany,starvation drove German women to prostitution and men in to pimps to survive,the male population was physiologically castrated by the constant reminders of Nazi deeds,even to day people fear the swastika,thinking it might inspire the German people to once again claim self honor and national pride,finally Germany elected a leader with balls,her name is Angela mercle

has to be churchill,the only one to stick the whole thing out,hitler was his own downfall from bad decisions,roosovelt was too late in it and didn't last the pace and stalin killed too many of his own,which leaves churchill,on his own for years with no serious help and kept the place going with so little

Churchill , he inspired Britain and kept them going when things were looking really grim , before the US entered the war , it can't be Stalin , leader???

He murdered millions of his own people and treated Russian solders like valueless cannon fodder.

Hitler was good for an economy , but it wasn't very smart of him to invade Russia was it

I have been trading over 31 years using over a hundred different systems, but as you might guess only few of them showed consistent profits. This is one of them https://tr.im/x7Ftg

What's most important is that they really cares about his fellow traders. Every time I have a question he is here for me, and he replies to emails really fast.

Roosevelt's stats were enormous coming to the table as a leader out of this four pack. Senator, taking part in the campaign of Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey for the Democratic nomination for president, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Vice-Presidential Candidate, Holding his head above water with his illness, his rousing nominating speech for Smith at the Democratic National Convention (Obama'ish) took a stance and grabbed attention, Governor of New York, Scars of the Stock Market Crash, Roosevelt immediately called a special session of Congress to deal with the depression rather than wait for the regular session in December; this caught Churchill's eyes knowing that he could lean his way and see faster results, double his attention while Congress was acting on other matters, Roosevelt aggressively pushed other legislation...thereon we can go on for hours.

Leading into the war, the chess game he played with the growth of U.S. Isolationism was not something the other 3 could of pulled off. Follow this up with the Quarantine of Aggressors chapter heading into the war. Spice it up with the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941.

Churchill should be acknowledged for being able to hold the numbers in his home land but outside of that, on a national WW scale, no way, the big brother last resort of Roosevelt card had him looking like a 3 year old little boy admiring his big 25 year old brother returning from combat duties. Note: I often heard of snide comments during history classes on how his hankie was always out so often to slop up the drool after being in a state of "awe" around Roosevelt.

Coining the term of "waking up the sleeping gentle giant" theme came mainly from the Roosevelt era.

Stalin was a coward from day one playing jacks with Hitler until the knife came into his back. He was like the red headed step child that was evil at the end of the day. He jumped ship real quick and took great advantage to soil his evil seeds. I am sure if Americans were able to have Rossevelt continue for a lot longer then 12 years, we would of seen Stalin get a spanking from old Roosevelt.

Last but not least, Hitler was like the evil trust fund baby on the block who got caught up in his glitz and glamor. Throw enough cash behind anyone like Stalin or Hitler and expect a similar outcome. Stalin didn't have the cash and the cult like following nor the brains to go to Hitlers extents.

So here we had, the 3 little ones not playing nice. Hitler jealous of Churchill and Stalin jealous of Hitler. Allow the domino's to fall and the big brother of Churchill came on in and sorted things out.

Hands down...Roosevelt.