Russia,
Russia, Russia known as surviving countless invasions and repelling invaders, with heavy
losses. By the 1930's, the Red Army was one of the largest armies in the world, seem great
strenghts, but had fatal flaws. The first was the great army purges of the early 1930's where seventy
percent of its officer corps was either killed or exiled to Siberia. This left the Red Army controlled
by nothing better than weak men who had little initiative or tactical skill. Similary, the Red Air
Force could boast thousand of planes and tanks, but only a small number of them were effective
in a modern war. Few people realize just how close the German invasion of Russia came to
succeeding, a change of plans or better weather could have knocked Russia out of the War.
This huge T-35 Medium Tank helped the Soviets get back in business
Instead, the Germans faced a grueling, bloody Eastern front that eventually consumed 20 million
Russians and nearly 9 million Germans. Despite the early reversals of 1941 and 1942, the Red
Army eventually triumphed over the Germans, but only at immense cost. The Russian
infantrymen were often poorly led and equipped, but still fought with determination. In defence he was difficult to dig out, and on the attack lack of tactical control often leads to human wave
assaults. The Red Army had about 30.000 most light tanks in 1941, or so poorly maintained that nearly 80% of them were destroyed in
the opening phases of the German invasion.The introduction of the T-34's, a serious threat, came as a shock to Germany,
who had at that time no tank which could withstand the T-34's armor or its 76mm gun, until the German Panther and Tiger
shows up. In later battles, the Russian tanks are almost as good as the Germans but still lack the killing power of the Panther
and Tiger.To compensate for it, most battles may have Russian tanks outnumbering the Germans nearly three to one, using
the typical Russian tactic of charging forward and attempting to overwhelm. By war's end the Russians produced about
100.000 tanks. The Russian artillery had large caliber 152mm gun pieces and rockets.In 1944 Russian had ten to one advantage in gun tubes
over the Germans, by war's end they produced about 500.000 guns to do bombardments until infantry appears.
Good reliable Soviet Tank loaded with Armor
Powerful Soviet Medium Tank
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