acosn said:
What the Russians had were numbers. That's it. Shit tanks, shit tactics, non-existent air force.
Que? What fantastical universe are you referring to?
Russian tactics were crude... but that is far from "shit" as you might say, as that implies they were ineffective.
Arming entire battalions with submachine guns may be "crude" but you can't knock its effectiveness in close range combat, just spraying from the hip 70 rounds at 15 rounds-per-second, while the German infantryman has a 5-shot bolt action rifle and has been trained in taking carefully aimed shots at 100 to 500 meters. Who do you think would win?
The Germans made less than 1 million submachine guns in the entire war for fighting a war on FOUR fronts (North Africa, Western Europe, Russia/Eastern Europe and Balkans (garrisoned but didn't see major fighting)) while the USSR that was fighting on just a single front made almost 10 million. And the PPSh-41 was generally considered the better submachine gun if not the best sub-gun of the war.
And the T-34 tank was one of the best tanks of the war, and that's not just in any single statistic but balance of speed, armour, mobility, fire-power and most of all deploy-ability. If a country can only make 5'000 of a tank then it is not going to be much use, one cannot command a battle with them, too easily outflanked.
And the Soviet Air force was an incredible force to be reckoned with.
Through most of it was destroyed on the ground in the surprise assault in the opening stages of Barbarossa, but the skilled core of pilots remained and grew as the older generations of planes (that were destroyed) were quickly replaced with newer and deadlier models.
And in dogfights where pilots manage to bail out, Russian pilots would be welcomed by communist partisans that were very active in all areas while German pilots had little to no chance of making it to friendly formations.
And the fearsome reputation of Soviet Snipers was well deserved, they took it FAR more seriously than any of the other powers... well, maybe the US Marine snipers matched the Soviet standard.
All over the soviet union, schools would run shooting trials, hundreds of millions were evaluated for their shooting prowess and skilled snipers fit well into the soviet ideology of war-fighting, the idea of a man or woman with a cheap rifle having a disproportionate effect through personal skill and dedication. More bang for your buck basically.
Katyusha multiple rocket launchers were a devastating piece of artillery, especially when deployed in such dense concentrations and fired with such co-ordination.
Soviet winter kit and kit in general was better as well, I mean German kit was almost unchanged since the First World War!
Also, read up your history on the Battles of the Eastern front, Russian generals REALLY delivered the goods and are exampled of the greatest minds in military history, to spite the purges, nothing like the threat of a bullet in the head to ensure good results. It was brutal, barbaric, but war is a barbaric thing. I find this quote from Hitler poignant (paraphrased):
"how could we lose? with our opera houses, fine art and superior culture?"
well Opera houses never won a war. A peasant conscript with a Sub-machine gun does.
Stalin was a horrible dictator but the bottom line is they were better off under Stalin than under Hitler.
Russia didn't JUST have strength of numbers, they knew how to use them. The battle of Thermopylae shows numbers alone don't mean everything.
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NB: yes, America provided a lot of key aid, but mostly of the support nature, not weapons, mainly key materiel like rubber and logistical stuff like trucks, Jeeps, trains, rations and so on. American made Jeeps made up virtually all of the military cars used by the Russians on the Eastern front.
In many way this was perfect, the USSR could have the pride in making and fighting with their own weapons (except for a lot of fighter aircraft, though the majority of fighters were of Russian design/manufacture) yet America could show their support and help back them up in the areas where they guys at the top needed it most.
Random Quote: "when it comes to war; Amateurs talk tactics, while Professionals talk logistics"
