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Originally Posted by polishshooter
What I said was "superior" to the 88 was the LATER Russian AT guns, first available towed in about mid to ate 44, the 100mm HV long barreled cannon and later the 122mm cannon...and then which showed up in the JS series tanks and SU and JSU series TDs...that is why the Germans were trying to get the 12.8 cm cannon to work in the Sturmtiger, and later MONSTER tanks, just to catch up with the Russians that by late 44 early 45 had PASSED German tank and At guns in size, velocity, range, and penetration....
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What you say is quite true, Polish, and I think you hint at an important point in addition to that. Toward the end of the war--say from 1944 to its end--the German technological advantage in battlefield weapons, so obvious in the first years of the war, had virtually disappeared. The German engineers had many excellent--even superior--weapons on the drawing board that would have been equal to any the allies had, but by 1944 German industry was unable to produce them in sufficient quantity to make any difference, whereas Russian production was in full swing. It is interesting to note that the one anti-tank weapon the Russians feared the most was not mounted on a tank or gun carriage at all. It was the simple, hand-held Panzerfust, usually fired by some stupid Hitler Jugend from 100 yards away. The Russkis lost a huge number of tanks to them in the final weeks of fighting in Berlin.