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From: cdrigney@uokvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <5000172@uokvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Feb-86 21:08:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uokvax.5000172
Posted: Wed Feb  5 21:08:00 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 10-Feb-86 22:06:26 EST
References: <516@whuts.UUCP>
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Nf-From: uokvax.UUCP!cdrigney    Feb  5 20:08:00 1986


> indicates Sevener's reply 
>> From Matt  Rosenblatt:   
>> A few questions for Mr. Sevener:

I hope you don't mind if I answer this one as well, Matt.

>> 1.  When the Germans sliced through Russia (and France) in
>> World War II,  how did German manpower (active and reserve)
>> compare with Soviet  and French/British manpower?  Was it
>> numerical superiority of men  that won battles for the
>> Germans, or numerical (and technical)  superiority of
>> weapons, mainly tanks?

> I believe it was predominantly a matter of Germany's swift and
> adept use of the latest technology at the time (namely tanks)
> coupled with weak Russian resistance.

Use based on books that had been available since the 30's (in
particular, B.H. Liddell-Hart's _On Strategy_) and ideas that had
been around since the 20's.  No one but the Germans paid
attention to these ideas for highly mobile warfare, and even they
were very relunctant to adopt them.  The astounding victories of
Guderian and his ilk would have been far faster and more thorough
if the General staff had not been so unwilling to encompass the
new ideas.  The ONLY reason anyone was evacuated at Dunkirk, for
example, was that Hitler ordered Guderian to halt just short of
it - he got there before the retreating BEF did.  In the invasion
of Russia, Moscow would have fallen the first year, if Guderian
had been given fuel.  Instead Hitler got distracted by the
Caucasus, and the German forces were drawn into the deathtrap at
Stalingrad.

Germany's forces were *extremely* tiny at that time, even
compared to France.  The Russians outnumbered them on the order
of 10 to 1, even at the beginning.  I doubt there was any battle
on the Eastern Front that Germany had numerical superiority in.
They *destroyed* over 300 divisions in the opening months of the
war, and were *still* outnumbered.

A major reason for the weakness of Russian defense was the lack
of experienced commanders, Stalin having slaughtered most of them
in the Great Purge.  Another reason was the hatred of the USSR
troops for the Russian regime.  In particular, the Ukraineans
deserted wholesale, and would have willingly joined the Germans
in marching on Moscow had they been given the chance.  If
anything this hatred is even greater today.

German tanks were technically superior to Russian tanks; that was
one of their major drawbacks.

> One notes that the tiny island of England did much better in
> holding out under conditions of regular V-2 raids.

This primarily demonstrates the bankruptcy of strategic bombing
to break civilian morale, a concept that has never proved itself.
Were it not for an unfortunate (err, I mean fortunate) mistake on
the part of the Luftwaffe's bombers, Germany would've been
bombing useful targets, instead of wasting its time and resources
(desparately needed on the Eastern Front) terrorizing civilians.

> I don't suppose that Russia's morale is vastly improved.

There's a world of difference between defending the Motherland
and invading someone else.  The only thing more dismal than
Russian morale is Russian discipline - see _The Threat_ or better
still _Inside the Soviet Army_ for details.

I'll answer the other questions in a later posting if I find
time, but bean-counting isn't really important anyway - it's just
easy to do.  There's a publication that gives the overall
armament for every country in the world, but I don't recall its
name at the moment - I'll post it when I find out.

		--Carl Rigney
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