Originally posted by The Middle Kingdom
Ok, you WAAAAAAY wrong inregards to Zhukov. Zhukov was the Miniser of Defence for the Soviet Union all the way into the 50's then he was transfered
to a backwater post by Kruschev for being to persistent in trying to get Tuchkasensky rehabilitated.
en.wikipedia.org...
A war hero and a leader hugely popular with the military, Zhukov constituted a most serious potential threat to Stalin's dictatorship. As a
result, in 1947 he was demoted to command the Odessa military district, far away from Moscow and lacking strategic significance and attendant massive
troops deployment. After Stalin's death, however, Zhukov was returned to favour and became Deputy Defense Minister (1953), then Defense Minister
(1955).
Where was I wrong?
Next, Chechnya? What the hell does Post 1955 wars and conflicts have to do with the strength and the ability of the Red Army between 1945 and
1950?
It has to do with a pattern of utter lack of imagination in STAVKA.
Western Europe was devasted by WWII and sorely lacked the ability to hold a Soviet invasion, America was far to far away to have possibly
helped except for when it becomes too late.
How many US troops were there in Europe? How much equipment? How large was the USAF/SAC deployment to Europe? I wouldn't say Germany, France (later
Belgium) and the UK are far too far away to help.
Don't try to attack the credibility of the authors, and shows a lack of maturity, these men okay, had General Staff training something of
which you probly did not recieve and any of which you were not alive at the time and couldn't possibly be in any position to fully and accurately
analyize the operations they took part in.
Oh, right. So Field Marshall Douglas Haig cannot be criticised for his blind use of full-frontal assaults across no-man's land after an artillery
barrage in WW2? Even in 1918? It shows I know something when I can see passed the shiny medals a man is wearing and look at his record of acheivement.
The inability to do so shows a lack of maturity.
Historical records make it incredibly easy to fully analyse said operations if you have the time.
Armoured warfare was theorized in Britian thanks partially to Liddel Hart and Dugaulle,
De Gaulle was French. (small point, I know.)
Okay, that one I don't get.
Nat China, is short for Nationalist China,
Yes, I got that. I didn't get the reference to the USSR adn its support of the KMT. I still don't get it. The USSR support of Nationalist China was
as expedient as Churchill's support of Stalin, it had no basis in long-term strategy or diplomacy. To quote Churchill on the floor of commons when he
announced he would supply material to the USSR "If Hitler invaded hell, I would at least give teh Devil a friendly reference."
As for the Sherman, you mentioned it as beign armed at one point with a 17 pounder,
Yes, as in the gun on the Centurion. The same gun that was the largest and most effective tank gun the allies used. The gun that could kill Tigers. 75
and 76mm Shermans could not. But Sherman Vs re-gunned by the Brits with the 17-pounder and called Firefly could. The Brits then put the 17-pounder
straight into the Centurion.
APC's were something generally developed by the West to protect infantry, the USSR tactics didn't reflect this and thus the needs for APC's
were low, putting inf in trucks following tanks were more then enough and the German APCs that they fought ended up scrap as so many engagements were
in urban areas.
The need for APCs was never low. They just didn't build them. Infantry never followed tanks into battle in trucks, they rode the tank hulls.
As for my claim in regards to allied airfields... it sobvious
No, not really, the RAF and USAF never supplied the USSR with comprehensive maps of all their airfields. It doesn't matter if the Russians knew where
they were, they didn't have the ability to destroy them, not in teh way you claim.
Some only 40 ARL-44's were build and the first one only became public in 1951....
Better check those numbers again. The total was small, but not that small.
The Soviets didn't need any bombers because they were fighting tactically, not strategically and they were perfectly content to let
Bomber Command die at night for them.
so....? They were fighting the war tactically because that was the most effective way of fighting it,
They were fighting that way becasue they didn't have the bomber force to fight the other way.
the war was in such a way that neither side had enough airpower for complete domination
Wrong, on the first day of Barbarossa the Luftwaffe acheived complete domination. Both in numbers, tactics and material. The Russians didn't have a
fighter that could go toe-to-toe with the 109 the way Spitfire could.
Russian industry would reverse this and Russian production would reverse the deficit in numbers and replaced those planes lost ont he ground. In
time.
But as 1945 drew closer the Soviets had more and more planes and the Germans had less and less and by the Battle of Berlin the Russians had
complete air suporiority everywhere.
The allies acheived complete air superiority. Flying from Italy the Mustangs dominated the entirety fo Germany. Russian fighters couldn't come close
to that and it was western allied strategic bombing that destroyed the Luftwaffe over Germany, not Russian offensive fighter sweeps.
Doesn't matter where they got their experience, the fact is they were better.
How can you say that?
Easily. You said they were good because they were WW2 fighter aces. Where you get your experience is immaterial.
Neither side could claim complete victory in the air, and the Western claims of kills keeps getting reevaluated lower...
The UN could claim compete victory in the air because all the fighting was done ofver NK, not SK. and While western estimates have been re-evaluated
lower, they now accurately reflect the truth. Their loss numbers are still far outnumbered by Chinese/Korean kill claims.
Doesn't change the fact that the Russians got shot down too. Russian and Chinese kill claims would mean that every Sabre sent to Korea
was shot down.
This is circular logic, both sides had planes that were shot down, and that is irrelevent it is the nature of the propoganda machine ON BOTH sides to
exaggerate the news on the front (the good news) for the purposes of moral at home.
No. You're creating circular logic. First you say that the Russian pilots were good. Then you say the US pilots were lucky because they were already
aces. Then you say the Yanks exaggerated their kills. But when I point out that it happened on both sides you claim foul. The fact is that the
communist forces lost more aircraft than the allies. Including a MiG 15 being shot down by an RAN Sea Fury (prop vs superior jet). The only inferior
jets in SK were the USN Panthers and RAAF Meteors.
They won for same reason they beat Napolean. Old man winter was their friend and they knew it and Hitler was a strategic moron. No sane
leader would focus on Stalingrad just because of its name. No sane leader would attack Russia as winter approached and with inferior numbers and no
intelligence.
If The Soviets didn't need APCs why did they develop a series of them in such rapid succession after WW2?
Why did one year does the government agree to do something yet the next year break their agreement?
That's called strategic diplomacy. No-one in the west beleived the non-agression pact, why did Stalin?
The military view pertaining at the time prior to the time after is different.
What?
The Russians won the war without them because they didn't have them and focused on tanks and trucks
Yes. And promptly went looking to get them. But they were behind the eight-ball and had to do some fast catching up.
One could equally say the same thing of almost ANY General Staff in any country, almost all militaries were plagued by bereaucratism,
careerism, "cover-one's-assism", etc. The only difference is that the Russian General staff was purged and actually did allow in hindsight for many
more capable and politically correct officers ot be promoted.
Yes, politically correct officers who blindly followed Stalin's orders, held all their troops up on the borders and were promptly enveloped by German
pincer movements.
Only an exceeding fear defeat and of course the organizational dislocations as a result of the Purges left the Red Army vulnerable to
German attack.
Huh? An exceeding fear of defeat left them vulnerable to defeat?
If the Red Army was so rotten as to be kicked down in the first blow it would've fallen in the first 6 months.
It did. Check the numbers of troops lost during the advance to Moscow, Leningrad and the Crimea.
However they held at Moscow, they held at Leningrad
Hello "Old man winter". Check when they held at these places and what the weather was like.
they held at Stalingrad
What year was that? What year was Operation Barbarossa?
and finally they held at Kursk.
Yes, they did. Partially because their tactics were superior and they didn't waste their tanks, using SPGs properly instead, partially because the
T-34/85 was still so good and partially because all the Tigers broke down.
the Germany was considered even at its end as the best trained and best organized fighting force on the planet.
You're kidding, right? Do you know what the Volksturm was?
Many things STAVKA did were imaginative, such as utilizing all the fith column elements behind German lines
Churchill called for the idea in 1940. He'd seen it in South Africa during the Boer War.
As for an Anglo-American expeditionary force landing in Russia do you think in any reaosnably degree that they could have done better in Russia
then the Germans?
When did the Germans land an expeditionary force? Only the Allies could mount combined ops.
They would've been swallowed up and spitted out.
So you contend.
Also even if the USSR didn't have enough of a fleet to take on the Allies then they had more then enough planes to hinder any successful
landings.
I wasn't actually talking about landings, I was talking about NGS, on-shore bombardments and the kind of damage that could be inflicted to Russian
cities such as Murmansk.
They're plenty of historians who think that Lend-Lease ot the Soviets was negligable at best.
It doesn't matter if it's negligible, look at the numbers of equipment loaded onto boats to be sailed to Archangel. That is on top of what US
industry is supplying to US and UK war efforts. I'm talking about industrial capacity.
If WWIII happened in 1945 the reconstruction of Europe could never have happened
Of course not. Again I'm talking about US economic capacity.
and would've allowed Red Uprisings in Western Europe to happen far more easily.
It could possibly have happened in France. And even that's only a possibility.
The SU was also producing many thousands of jeeps and trucks and they're war industry by 1948 were producing more then enough for
themselves.
First you talk about 1945, then 1948, make up your mind. The Soviet Union has never out-produced the US prior to the 50s. And then its products were
always inferior.
And you forget that the West had generals like Patton who could have quite possibly attacked a city for its name just as easily.
When did George S Patton die?
And Old Blood and Guts may have been slightly insubordinate, but he always followed orders. If ordered not to attack a city because it was tactically
and strategically useless, as Stalingrad was, he wouldn't. Patton lived only to grapple with the enemy, not get into urban demolition.