b. Why was Germany on the point of collapse by April 1945?
Although Stalin was desperate for Britain and America to open up a second front and thus divert the Germans away from the Soviet Union, this was not possible in 1942. Roosevelt agreed that defeating Nazi Germany quickly was a priority (even though it was the Japanese who had brought America into the war), but neither the USA nor Britain yet had the resources needed to launch a major invasion of mainland Europe. As...