Good point, Erich. But- I think it's more due to the whole Russian philosophy at the time. Russian generals all the way up to Stalin were notorious for a willingness to sacrifice their troops. This idea also went into armor- better produce thousands of tanks and lose quite a few, while still winning the war. The russian war economy was simply more geared towards mass production than that of the germans.
That was my main point- production numbers have MUCH more to do with factors of the wartime economy- resources, labor, etc.- than any direct reaction to enemy successes.
The russians would have manufactured thousands of T-34s wether the germans had better tanks or not!
I'd agree with that sentiment. Pretty close in most cases.
You know my whole editorial background- I tend to look at all the information with a critical eye!
I should clarify one thing- my comments on kill counts/veterans' memories are in NO WAY meant ot be disrespectful towards ANY veterans. I have HUGE amounts of respect for any vets who fought for their country.
I just would have to imagine... in the hectic tank battles, it MUST have been difficult to determine any sorts of exact numbers. I often look to the example of the wing cameras installed on most allied fighters... correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the major reasons for those cameras due to the wildly exaggerated kill numbers claimed by allied pilots?
As in the case with German tank crews...
these exagerrated claims are not a reflection on the people making the claims, but on the chaos and intensity of the battles they fought in. Considering the battles these soldiers were participating in... can we really expect them to gain a perfect picture of exactly what happened?
Does that make sense?
