Political Crossfire Forums

[Girardo]

An inferior German army (in terms of numbers) demolished and ran rings around the Soviet army duirng the first years of the war. Apparently it has been said the quality of Soviet tanks was on a par with, if not better than German tanks and they were about 5 times more numerous.

what was the reasons for this??

My synopsis was the element of surprise (made possible by a truly exceptional deception plan on the part of the Germans) coupled with better tactics & better quality, more experienced soliders. Out of the 3 better quality soldiers was the most important out of the 3. Once the Soviets better from just over a years fighting their soldiers became more experineced and thus improved and their Generals learned more about the ins and outs of modern warfare and began to improve their tactics and strategies.
I dont believe Germans had superior equipment maybe with slight exception of aircraft. and i dont believe the fact that 1 Million+ Soviet troops were left in the East was responsible as Soviets still had vast numerical advantage and these 1M shouldn't have been needed.

[Girardo]

Delete this!!

i went back to put an extra option in.

[MG1962]

The basic problem for the Soviet army where the purges that occured from 1917 onwards. By the time of the Finnish war in 1938 there really was no one left with any real command experience or ability.

As the Germans advanced - the cream floated to the top so to speak. Mind you Soviet tactics never got any real subtly to them - just throw men.... lots of them, at the Germans.

[citizen_X]

The tanks of the Soviet Union was far better than any models of the german tank corp, considering the only tank to take on T/34s and the heavy K1s and 2s was the Panzer 3/F2, but they were in small numbers to have any effect. It was pure communication that the german tanks surpassed in, radios, tactics and overall air supermacy that did a number on russian equipment, until the russians smartened up.