Today is the anniversary of the Normandy invasion. There are not many people alive who participated in that invasion. You can find a famous picture from the invasion here.
And to give credit where credit is due, it was on the Eastern Front that the German army was essentially destroyed. If the German army had not been defeated there, it's unlikely that the Normandy invasion could have been successful. The Soviet Union lost between 25 to 30 million people KILLED in that war, about 14% of their population. Can you imagine what the US would be like if we had lost 14% of our population in that war?
When the history of WWII was taught in the west, the Soviet contribution was rarely mentioned because of the cold war that set in after WWII.
Let's all hope that we never experience another war of such magnitude and global scope.
Mike
[The US lost about 420,000 people killed, about 0.32% of our population]