Downing’s book was reprinted last year. It was one of the inspirations for this thread.
As well it should have. While the KV was a clunky monster, generally poorly designed, it’s armor was massive, and it’s 76mm gun was very effective. The German PzKw II, II, and IV’s were no match for it in gunnery or armor. In fact, the PzKw IV, Germany’s most common tank, was pretty mediocre. It was a sufficiently flexible and mobile design for the Germans to keep it from obsolescence by a continual process of upgrades, but towards the end, it was pretty ovbiously a hodge-podge of modifications, and reached the end of it’s useful improvement cycle. The PzKw III/IVs were quite superior to the T-26 and it’s peers, but were in no way a match for the KVs and T-34s. It was communications, tactics, training, and doctrine that made the Wehrmacht superior to the Red Army in the early days, and those factors are never enough to carry a far weaker force in a war of attrition, especially when the larger side has a steeper development curve.
Ironically, if Hitler had taken the war with the United States more seriously, he might have won the war with the Soviet Union. As several people have noted, the biggest flaw in the German East Front strategy was the lack of commitment to a long term campaign. The Germans kept trying to accomplish everything within a matter of a few months.
But suppose Hitler had planned on a total war with the United States with an invasion sometime in the late 40’s. In that scenario, there would have been a reason for the Germans to maintain a high level of long term military buildup. And these military units, even though intended for some future campaign in America, would have been available for the existing war in Russia.
Thanks-the battle between the Japanese “Kwangtung” Army and the Soviet forces (commanded by Gen. Zhukov) was called the battle of Khalkin Gol. It was (as you pointed out) a disaster for the Japanese-essentially the japanese tried to attack Soviet army via infantry charges! The Japanese had only light tanks, which were blown to bits by the heavy Soviet tanks. Curiously, there is very little written about this pivotal battle-which really determined the outcome of WWII-I am convinced that had the Japanese followed their war plan “North Wind Rain” (the invasion of Siberia); the Soviets would never have been able to retake Stalingrad; and very likely Hitler would have won the war! Of course, one wonders whether the Germans would have come into conflict with Japan eventually!