Hmmm, Kai- I wonder about Guderian's info there. I've read in all my sources that all the new armor produced in spring 43 was slated to go to the Kursk offensive. I know Hitler was concerned about allied landings in Italy, but I haven't read about him wanting to divert the Panthers.
hmmm...
On the Panther production figures, the german armaments companies often under-estimated the time it required to produce certain things. I would guess the Panthers are an example of this. Keep in mind what condition they were in when they DID reach the front- the mechanical difficuties seem to have taken out at least 50 tanks right off the bat.

On the lend-lease tanks, the russians hated the M3 Lee. They called it "the grave for seven brothers"... not only was the Lee incredibly easy to take out and cause to burn, but it required a crew of seven.
The biggest thing lend-lease provided for the russians was logistics- trucks and jeeps. In june 1943 alone, the US sent over 90,000 trucks to russia (I have to check my nuber at home on this one, but I'm pretty sure it's accurate). The american and british tanks and guns made up a relatively small part of the shipments- not only did the russians dislike the allied tanks, but the allies weren't producing as many as the russians. We need to remember Stalin's economic moves here... when Stalin switched much of russia's industry to producing farm tractors and heavy machinery, he perfectly equipped the russians to produce tanks. We all know about the T-34... BUT, russia did not have the infrastructure to produce large amounts of trucks and smaller vehicles. Even more, the trucks they did have/produce were of markedly inferior quality to those of the US. So the allied shipments of trucks and jeeps made it possible for the russians to truly mechanize their forces.

Carl, I would tend to agree about the recoiless weapons against lighter targets. I wonder about heavier targets though- I don't think the recoiless weapons the germans used had enough power. I've seen one of the 7.5cm weapons at Aberdeen- it dosen't look long enough to take an especially powerful shell, and it does look like the recoiless weapon (don't remember exact name) would take longer to get into action than, say, a Panzerschrek.
But more to my point, I was more wondering about overall performance... How did the units perform at Kursk? Were they mainly an anti-tank unit?

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