gen.zod said:
Great points about the Sherman vs T34 and KV or JS tanks Neutron But remember,those U.S. tankers knew how to beat the German Tigers and Panthers So I really think they could have beaten the Russian tanks Remember a little war in Korea? Those Sherman tanks gave a very good account against those "superior" T34's But I supposse you know more about stuff like that than any of us I am no expert on armored warfare I just like to build model tanks
Now,some points about Russian tactics Everything I have read about them suggests they would only make an attack when they had overwhelming supperiority Smart move But they had very inflexible rules as far as deviating from orders from above For example,artillery support They would start the bombardment then stop If the poor bastard infantry ran into tough opposition it was tough shit for ole Ivan
The Soviet Union lost 26 million people in that war Personnally that was due to Stalin's incompetence in my opinion Were the big battles fought against the USSR? Yes But if it wasn't for the air war fought by the Western Allies, maybe,just maybe that war would have been fought a lot longer And where oh where was the mighty Russian bear in the war against Japan? They (the Russians) would not have been able to fight the Germans and Japanese both in my opinion The Russians would have ran out of people for the meat grinder
All this is just a simple truck drivers opinion on that war Not meant to inflamme anyone Just glad for the thread started by Neutron Thank you😀
Everything you just said was a Myth...
The Shermans did terrible against the German tanks. In Korea the Sherman was barely deployed against the T34. By the 50s the T 54 was the main battle tank.
What you said about Soviet Tactics does NOT apply after late 1941. By 1943 they wre one of the most flexible battle forces in the world. It should be noted at Operation Uranus, the emcirclement of Stalingrad the Russians actually only deployed 75% of the forces available to Germany. Same with it's followups Operations Saturn and Mars.
At Kursk, where the Russians broke the back of the Wehrmacht
the Russians and Germans were at numerical equality.
All three Operations turned the tide against the Germans, ALL were flexible operations conducted on the fly. AND all were in situations where the Russians were NOT at numerical Superiority.
In fact one of the weaknesses of Russian strategy was not utilizing their manpower superiority.
As for the Russian Deaths. 9.8 million were Russian soldiers. This has NOTHING to do with poor Russian tactics. Except at the beginning of the war. Russia lost 125,000 people BEFORE GERMANY BOTHERED DECLARING WAR!!. 15 million Russians were killed due to the realities and brutality of the Eastern FRont. Again nothing to do with strategy, it had everything to do with the Germans declaring Russian civilians as Untermensch (still legally German law). I suggest you read up on Untermensch. The majority of the Russian casualties were due to fighting an extremely skilled enemy who were dug into fortified positions. This always favors the defender and results in out of the ordinary casualties to the offensive. It's interesting to note the US Casualties in the Pacific on a PER captita basis were higher than the Russian Military. Given the fact the Russians were facing 80% of the German military and almost 90% of their economy what they managed to pull off is astounding.
What you said about the Air War is pure bullshit. It disrupted German transportsation BUT at the END of WW2 the German war machine was putting out 25% more than BEFORE the bombing campaign started.
As for Japan. Russian was under no obligation to fight Japan. They'd already beat Japan in a war in 1936/37. Zhukov earned his rep in those wars. The Russians had no mutual defense pact with the Allies and in every conferencewith the other Allies it was agreed Russia was under no obligation to fight Japan (thank God, if they were they wouldn't have been able to transfer divisions to the Eastern Front in 1942). Germany was the primary enemy for all involved. Also Russia does NOT consider WW2 as being a world war. They consider it an invasion and call it the Great Patriotic War..
I suggest you read the following, Erickson, beevor, Glanz. Start with Beevor because he gives the best overview. Then go on to the others.
Tron