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To: pensiveproletariat
The Russians took everything we shipped them including tank chassis and bodies and drivetrains built in Detroit.

The Russians built their own guns, and could assemble Stalin Organs without a lot of difficulty.

You have to remember that they'd relocated as much industry as they could beyond the Ural mountains, but their ace in the hole for resupply was the United States of America.

We made a deal ~ the US built the stuff ~ the Russians used it to kill Germans and Hungarians.

Did you know that Russian soldiers in the Battle of Stalingrad got canned meat from Chicago every day? The German soldiers didn't!

This stuff is called Spam, and there are those who will argue that Spam won WWII. All things being equal it definitely tipped an important balance.

Then there's Georgi Zhukov ( http://www.carpenoctem.tv/military/zhukov.html has a fair brief on his life and career ). I think it's safe for Americans to give this fellow some credit these days.

Patton simply does not stand up against Zhukov by any measure.

39 posted on 04/13/2005 7:21:35 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
"Patton simply does not stand up against Zhukov by any measure."

I beg to differ Zhukov was cut from very Russian cloth, and did everything through brute force. The only reason he, or any other Russian general had success, was through sheer force of numbers. As an example, one of Zuhkov's great successes, Operation Saturn, succeeded like it did because not only were the German's in Stalingrad bled white, the German reserves were used up soundly defeating Operations Mars and Uranus. David Glantz postulates, quite convincingly, that Saturn was actually an axillary attack, in a three pronged offensive (Mars, Saturn and Uranus), with the goal of destroying Army group Center, not Army Group South. His drive to Berlin was one of brute strength, showing very little imagination, IMO, as well.

I will give him his dues, he was a master coordinator of material and men. The numbers he dealt with are astonishing. It's simply a shame that so many men, and so much material was wasted by ham-fisted tactics. Also, in the defense, he was masterful in luring his opponents into well laid out killing fields. He did it to the Japanese in Manchuria, and the Germans at Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk. Of course, all were accomplished by sacrificing vast amounts of men and material.

There are reasons why Soviets loses were so heavy, and the main one was because of the willingness of generals like Zhukov to throw away the lives of his men, in lieu of tactics.

75 posted on 04/13/2005 8:20:29 PM PDT by Turbo Pig (...to close with and destroy the enemy...)
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To: muawiyah

To say that Patton does not stand up aginst a commie general-Zhokov - is one of the dumbest statements I have seen in a long while. I think you need to go back to the post office.


168 posted on 04/15/2005 6:31:59 AM PDT by ohioman
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