Stalin and the atomic bomb

Well, the figures don't lie, but the "quantity is quality" idea does always pan out.

I think the difference comes with pre-war development and the qualitative difference in production. For instance, the expansion the soviet air force experienced in the late 20's and 30's which led to the development of the I-16 and others had stalled by the time the war started, new designs were not available for production to meet the Luftwaffe - which outclassed them. I think, with a few exceptions like the t34, the qualitative difference in weapons weighed in favor of the Germans, at least at the beginning.

 

The qualitative difference was definitely in favor of the Germans in the beginning. Maybe if they had also had a greater quantity they would have been able to sustain their early gains. There are limits though, what good does it do to have 20,000 more airplanes if you don't have trained personnel to fly them? Then again what good does it do to have 10,000 trained pilots and only 8,000 working planes(just a random example not real numbers)?

I have always been a fan of the German military technological developments. Some did not get the kind of production that they could have (mp44). They had the developmental edge in the beginning, I guess if they would have had all the resources to produce them in the quantity needed to overpower everyone they wouldn't really have needed to go to war.

 

Very true. Though I would add that most advanced Soviet weaponry models were there since nearly the beginning. Their massive production might have come late, but T-34s and Yaks did make a difference now and then, right?

But we know that it was in the man-to-man fight between Jerries and Iváns that the real difference laid. German foot soldiers may have had better literacy and training standards, but the Soviet footsoldiers had a far better physical resistance and determination.

That's one of the main strategic blunders of Germany in WWII: choosing to fight a stronger enemy in a 1-to-1 basis.

 

The scariest thing is that the Germans could have been so much better, technologically, from the start. Funny, the Nazis suffered from the same top level blundering and meddling as the Russians.

 

Thank the Lord there were so many more of them!

 

In atomic weapons, the Soviets advanced so fast that they actually detonated the very first H-Bomb. This is flat against the history books, but it happened. The US created the first fusion explosion on Oct. 31, 1952 (Mike). The Soviets exploded Joe-4, a true hydrogen bomb the next summer, and the US demonstrated a real H-bomb 7 months later (Bravo). So why weren't we first? Because our first "bomb" wasn't a deliverable weapon at all but 100 tons of machinery while the Soviets used the "dry" method which made it a deliverable weapon. Our next test was a deliverable weapon though, 7 months later.