Did America intervene in World War II

An American friend recently commented on US intervention in WWII. I don’t want in any way to be disrespectful to the memory of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who gave their lives in the cause of Freedom or to downplay the debt we all owe to them and to all those who fought. But I do want to make the point that it was not an “intervention”. Intervention, I would submit, is the voluntary involvement by one party in the affairs of a third party or parties. To that extent, Britain’s declaration of war on Germany was an intervention because it was not necessary and was brought about because we objected to the way Germany was treating Poland.
America did not intervene. It was attacked. At that point, America found itself in common cause with Great Britain and the two countries fought together as an alliance. I do feel that the extent of Britain’s role in the alliance is overlooked today by people on both sides of the Atlantic because they view history through the lens of today and, of course, today we are very much a junior partner. As I understand it, there were more British than American men and materiel in contact with all the enemies (Japan, Germany and Italy) until the middle of 1944, when the American war effort overtook ours. My source for this claim is Churchill’s seven volume account of the war. At the time of the D-Day landings, 60% of the forces involved were American but 40% were British or British Commonwealth. The Royal Navy began the assault on the Normandy Beaches (HMS Belfast beginning proceedings with a mighty broadside) and the American Navy followed in.

None of this, as I say, is to downplay the role of America. And without America, the war would have gone on for many years more and may well have resulted in a stalemate. We shall never know. On a personal note, I should say that after five years of fighting in Europe, my father, in 1945, was pumped full of tropical medicine shots and ordered to embark for Japan. Whilst carrying out this order, news reached him of the use of the Atom bomb and the subsequent surrender of Japan. As a result he was enabled to return to civilian life. Without that action by President Truman he might not have lived to see the Peace and I might not have been born. So I hope my pro-British sentiments won’t be mistaken for being anti-American.