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Old 02-21-11, 03:54 AM   #18
frinik
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I can t remember where I read it may be in one of Thomas Jentz " s books but it said that in 1942 and 1943 the Soviets lost more tanks than they produced and the difference was made up by the land lease tanks which allowed them to compsensate for these losses.Only in 1945 did their production get ahead of losses.Naturally not all the losses were combat related quite a number of tanks had accidents dues ot the carelessness and runkenness of the crews and mechanical breakdown resulting in fires or accidents.

The Panther ausf. Dweighed 43 tons thus only 8 tons more or 20% than the JS2 odel 1944 not 50 %.The G weighed 2 tons more The TIger II weighed 68 tons thus twice as heavy as the JS and the TIger I 56 tons.However those tanks carried far more shells and were designed with difference purposes in mind than the JS which was not designed to be a tank-to -tank fighting machine and simply ended up fighting them on variosu occasions more by chance that by design.

I agree with Zee Germany had a very sophisticated society whereas the SU inherited the Tsairst mess of an uneducated and repressed population and added some of their own horrors.

The Germans however had their own flaw which was to overwork and overengineer their machines to the point of forgetting practicality and simplicity.The Soviets had not choice but to make cruder but simpler machines so their largely unsophisiticated crews could operate them with a minimum of training.It worked but only because Hitler made the fatal mistake of declaring war on the US and overextending Germany's limited resources in manpower and indsutrial capacity.
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