This is really true. While there were a lot of combat vehicles/etc sent, they were in general underperforming, hard to maintain and late arriving. They plugged gaps in Soviet formations, but were never a significant force in their own. According to historians very, very few saw combat in significant engagements pre-reversal (before and during Stalingrad).
However, while the ratio of lend lease/Soviet combat vehicles was so low as to some historians being able to argue they were inconsequential, the whole Soviet logistic systems seemed to have hinged on US trucks, in the most important dates and theaters, and was likely unsustainable without them.
jsnell
21854
I have, in fact! In today’s video, he says about Russia:
- That the numbers are very uncertain and sources confict, and he doesn’t actually endorse any set of those numbers. But what he seems to mostly work by are the Estonian estimates, by which Russia went through half their stockpile in 2022.
- There are very clear signs of an ongoing Russian artillery ammunition shortage (he goes through some of the evidence supporting that claim).
- Russia will not actually ever run out of shells; they will just reduce their consumption as they become more and more supply-constrained.
- Even the most optimistic estimates of Russian ammunition production rates are far below their consumption in 2022, and the amount that Russia is able to produce is not sufficient to support their doctrine.
- Russia’s import options are very limited
I take it that you’re endorsing his analysis, then?
I have a book, somewhere on my shelves, by a Soviet tank commander who led a unit equipped with Lend-Lease Sherman tanks. It’s quite fascinating.
I believe the Russians liked to refer to the Grant tank as “Seven Graves for Seven Brothers”.
Yeah, but all those were 1944 and later. Not exactly fundamental to the war effort.
Oh, not implying that at all, just mentioning that there are accounts of the Russian experience with American vehicles. The book I have (Commanding the Red Army’s Sherman Tanks, by Dmitriy Loza (trans. by James F. Gebhardt), University of Nebraska, 1996) describes Loza’s experience from mid-1943 through the end of the war commanding a unit of M4A2 tanks. And no, definitely not fundamental, but interesting stuff nonetheless.
ShivaX
21859
It’s a much longer thread.
Assuming this stuff is more or less true–and really, it seems quite plausible on the surface at least–it also isn’t terribly surprising given what we know or suspect about the FSB and Russia in general these days.
That the entire FSB is a giant criminal organisation is unsurprising, really.
jpinard
21863
It’s too bad he doesn’t have more proof for the Moscow apartment bombings. Maybe that would be enough to mobilize the Russian populace to overthrow their government.
ShivaX
21864
Honestly the most damning part is how the FSB kills their own people to cover shit up.
Because at this point, the Russian people wont believe or care about anything anyway.
But those FSB guys who know they’re just gonna get murdered for doing their jobs?
Those guys might not be on board for that.
Grifman
21865
Trains, not trucks. Youi can’t really move heavy manufacturing equipment in trucks over long distances and trains are much more efficient.
I do think that if there is any sort of palace coup, it’ll be from the ranks of the FSB, maybe with the remnants of the professional military. Putin = Caligula, FSB = Praetorian Guard. Sadly, I don’t see a Claudius anywhere.
I’m sure this would make the next presidential election campaign more nervous.
But what proof can you produce? If you show every Russian an HD video of Putin giving order to blow up Russians as a false-flag you’ll force them to make a choice: believe it’s a forgery or believe their state is even more cruel than they thought and any resistance will end up in a bloodbath. I don’t see it’s happening without a coup. Maybe with a gradual growth of civil protests but I’m sure this is exactly the thing Russian government is prepared to deal with accordingly after researching the experience of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
I know it sounds like I’m trying to prove that any revolution in history was actually impossible. But you can see that Russian government doesn’t care about anything at all except for staying in power, and it will sacrifice anything. It might turn out the mechanism of preserving power is as rotten as the mechanism of projecting power. But so far it was sufficient and any unsuccessful protest will end in a lot of blood.
No, this seems realistic. It’s also why most revolutions are terribly bloody and involve a lot of payback and vengeance. It’s the difference between systems that can bend, and those that stay rigid until the break in half.
Aceris
21869
Indeed. I can’t think of a revolution that succeeded in the face of a ruthless and powerful security establishment that remained loyal.
