Those Soviet Siberian divisions were the cream of the crop. Zukhov cut his teeth with them, killing the Imperial Japanese Army's incursion into Siberia before he took his art West against Paulis and Von Manstein. At the end of the war, they smashed the IJA's Kwangtung Army in Manchuria in a matter of days.
While Patton is undoubtly one of the best Western allies' manouver generals, he was on par with Zukhov and Chuikov which meant that all three were nowhere near Kesselring, Von Manstein, and Rommel. What the Allies excel at was artillery and bombardment. Manouver was iffy. I don't think Patton could have did any better than Montgomery did. Montgomery caught the Wehrmacht by surprise in Market-Garden. The Wehrmacht was waiting for Patton
While Patton is undoubtly one of the best Western allies' manouver generals, he was on par with Zukhov and Chuikov which meant that all three were nowhere near Kesselring, Von Manstein, and Rommel. What the Allies excel at was artillery and bombardment. Manouver was iffy. I don't think Patton could have did any better than Montgomery did. Montgomery caught the Wehrmacht by surprise in Market-Garden. The Wehrmacht was waiting for Patton
1- The divisions statione din the east in 45 were combat veteran moved form Germany as part of the Potsdam meeting. They were not the same troops who had smashed the Japanese at Glakin-Ghol(?) in Mongolia in 38. Those troops died in 1941 in the Red Armies counter-attack outside moscow.
2-Zukhov is no wear near Patton. Zukhovs answer to everythign was use a sledgehammer. Much like Montgommery they could only fight set peace battles and could not keep up anytype of sustaine doffensive effort. The Red Army and British 8th Army both rleeid on sprint offensives rather than sustained pressure.
Rommel is likewise overrated and was at best a good divsional commander. Like Kesselring he was better on the defense than offense and you dont win by defending. Any complex study of his offensives will show a losing record or of gambles taken without a clear cut weighing of the risks.
Operationally, the great commanders of WW2 are Patton, Mainstein, and Guderian. These are the only three commander sot show that they really grapsed the concept of shock through mobility and firepower as the key victory. Pattons 3rd Army sliced through France at a rat eunequalled by an army anywhere until the US Army in OIF. This depsite magor German counter-attacks and blocking efforts. it was not until his armored troops got sucked into urban fights around Metz and Aachen then he got slowed down.
Patton had a feel for battle that rivals that of Bobby Lee or Alexander the Great. From shoring up the Army as Casserine to Scicily to the drive across Europe no force ever stopped him, not even Rommel or Kesselring.
In a what if 1945 US-USSR clash the USSR is doomed. US 8th Airforce heavy bombers and 9th Airforce tactical bombers based from France could have cut every rail line into Poland and Germany isolating the Red Army in the largest pocket ever seen. Russian troops would ahve bene faced with three options, starve, surrender, or walk home.
Minus the airforces the sides are about equal. The USSR has superior heavy tanks (US 90mm would not penetrate the fornt of an IS-III) and superior numbers of artillery. vs the US with superior volume of fire at the infantry level, ToT artillery capability, and superior divsional formation structure.
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