Panther/FW-190

No, my friends,

not a battle here in the forums!

I definitely know what happened so I was hoping for a view of the battle from different sides, not to start a new battle, sorry about that.

 

Like previously mentioned : "Breathe,eat and sleep WW2" stolen from the famous football ad
" Breathe, eat and sleep football"

 

Kai is right this is essential reading. I came accross this last year, I think because of a post that Kai put up. It took several weeks of quality time in the reading room to finish it. It is an excellent treatment of the Soviet-German conflict.

One of the most interesting things about it for me was the way that the author treated the subject of material at the beginning. The author detailed the reason that comparitive histories are so unbalanced due to the lack of accuracy and availability of Russian documentation. It seems that while Stalin may not have had the same mental illness that Hitler had when it came to seeing what was really happening, he had no fondness for recording it for future generations. I too recommend this as essential reading.

 

I allways wondered who was that I.Q. champion who figured out to equip german tanks with petrol engines ? As i know Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine at the early 20th century. He was German. So the Germans obviously had the best diesel technology. They had to know that the diesel engine consumes less fuel and has more torque at low rpm, so it is much better for heavy vechiles like tanks. Instead they used a complicated Maybach petrol engine in the Panther and Tiger. ( T-34 had diesel engine)
Another mistery for me. Germans attacked Russia. Than they realised that Russians have superior tanks like T-34,KV-1. What were the German spys do before the war? Went on a holiday ? Sorry for bad english.

 

The German spies were all working for the other side...


German intel during WW2 was blooming useless on the whole.

 

Then you may find this interesting too, Iceman

http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/documents/e-front.htm

 

Not necessarily, for instance, Russians invented the razor blade as everybody knows, but the American made ones were a lot better. Even Herman Göring was aware of this!

Of course this has to do with exactly what engines are available to the tank plants at time of design, which type of fuels can be cheaper/easier to produce or import. Diesel engines also are built to more demanding specifications, are generally heavier, it's all a matter of choosing which drawbacks you can live with, assuming you have the means you can make your own decisions.

 

I agree if he allowed them to retreat they would do much better. Except for one time you mentioned. I believe that in the first winter in the battle of moscow, the stand fast order was needed. It made the germans stop running from the Soviet attacks and deal with them and more importantly winter head on. It helped the Germans deal with their first winter in the USSR. If not, the chances were that the Germans would have been routed all the way back to Germany. The germans remember Napolean being repeled back to the begining and the Germans would run in an all out retreat at this point. The stand fast stopped that and the Germans took heavy losses but did not retreat. Otherwise, your right about all other cases.