SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post

frinik · 02-20-11, 10:11 PM

I agree with Skybird, the T34 rocked the Germans because they had been too conservative , too Western Europeans in their approach to tank warfare.The Soviets faced with a poor infrastructure( few good roads and raliway lines) and their manpowrer was often illetrate( the litteracy rate in the SU of the 30s and 40s was less than 40%, a legacy of the Tsarist and post WWI civil war era and they needed a tough, unsophisiticated and easy to operate tank.The T34 was perfect for the job as it addressed the bad roads and poorly educated peasants who were the Soviets' cannon fodder..TBut the Communist system being what it was andd still is the emphasis was on filling the 5 year plan, producing mass numbers,pleasing the master of the hour in the Kremlin and the hell with quality.Even as late as the 80s the Soviet people preferred to buy anything from their Eastern European sattemlites over their own products so shoddy was the made in USSR stuff.

Even then to Soviets consistently lost more tanks than they could produce except in 1945 and it was the tanks provided by the Anglo-Americans during the landlease that saved their skins and allowed them to be able to replenish their terrible losses.

The T 34/85 is a fine tank.It was easy to make and reliable and that's why it remained popular for so long but it was not equal to western design which is why it was defeated one-on-one by the Panther in 1944-45 and by the M36 in during the Korean war.

Sorry to say so Oberon but I think the koenigstiger was a terrible tank to make for a resource poor country, with shortages of fuel, fighting against an enemy with mastery of the air( less so in the East), overwhelming numerical superiority and facing round the clock bombings of industrial and transportation facilities.It would have been formidable for the Germany of 1942 . Even the Panther was too heavy and ti would have been the perfect tank had it been 10 tons lighter.... I know ZeeWolfe loves the Tiger but I think had the Germans dropped it and focussed on producing more Panzer IV G or H and more Panthers they would have ben better off Sorry Zee!

02-20-11, 10:11 PM	#13
frinik Grey Wolf Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 897 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I agree with Skybird, the T34 rocked the Germans because they had been too conservative , too Western Europeans in their approach to tank warfare.The Soviets faced with a poor infrastructure( few good roads and raliway lines) and their manpowrer was often illetrate( the litteracy rate in the SU of the 30s and 40s was less than 40%, a legacy of the Tsarist and post WWI civil war era and they needed a tough, unsophisiticated and easy to operate tank.The T34 was perfect for the job as it addressed the bad roads and poorly educated peasants who were the Soviets' cannon fodder..TBut the Communist system being what it was andd still is the emphasis was on filling the 5 year plan, producing mass numbers,pleasing the master of the hour in the Kremlin and the hell with quality.Even as late as the 80s the Soviet people preferred to buy anything from their Eastern European sattemlites over their own products so shoddy was the made in USSR stuff. Even then to Soviets consistently lost more tanks than they could produce except in 1945 and it was the tanks provided by the Anglo-Americans during the landlease that saved their skins and allowed them to be able to replenish their terrible losses. The T 34/85 is a fine tank.It was easy to make and reliable and that's why it remained popular for so long but it was not equal to western design which is why it was defeated one-on-one by the Panther in 1944-45 and by the M36 in during the Korean war. Sorry to say so Oberon but I think the koenigstiger was a terrible tank to make for a resource poor country, with shortages of fuel, fighting against an enemy with mastery of the air( less so in the East), overwhelming numerical superiority and facing round the clock bombings of industrial and transportation facilities.It would have been formidable for the Germany of 1942 . Even the Panther was too heavy and ti would have been the perfect tank had it been 10 tons lighter.... I know ZeeWolfe loves the Tiger but I think had the Germans dropped it and focussed on producing more Panzer IV G or H and more Panthers they would have ben better off Sorry Zee!