What was the state of the Soviet and American war machines in 1945.

by toefirefire

I know there were some proponents of the dreadful idea of Western allies not stopping at Berlin and instead declaring war on the Soviet Union. I was trying to think about how strong the two sides were but I became a little stumped, I know on the one hand they were both at their peak levels of production and had their total war systems running efficiently, but on the other hand their populations were exhausted and there was a lot of wear on both sides. So I’m wondering if the two sides were in a strong position to fight more total war or a bad one.

frezik

The British commissioned a study, Operation Unthinkable, which worked out two possible scenarios:

  1. The Western Allies launch a surprise attack on the Soviets
  2. The Soviets launch a surprise attack on the Western Allies

The results of both were the same: Soviet numerical advantage would completely overrun the lines. Particularly so in light of American forces being redirected for the planned invasion of Japan.