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SGT Combat Engineer
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Soviets eventually went to the 85mm on the T-34. Not sure if that helped against a Tiger. Kind of surprising, though, that there wasn't even any spall damage.
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PO3 Donald Murphy
PO3 Donald Murphy
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The first Tiger knocked out by the Allies was actually a 6 pounder (57mm) kill in the desert! So the worst Russian tank was up to killing a Tiger. Where the Russians would fall down is training and leadership. At that point in the war, the average Russian is not allowed to think for himself and if the leader is wounded/killed (the Germans knew this...) they were useless. Longer range 85mm tank guns (and indeed, the towed 100mm ATG) give the Russians comforting stand off capability which then does wonders for their morale. But at Kursk, they are still a long way off.

One of the initial Russian concepts was to let the SS show up and do their armored phalynx thing, enter the valley and then bomb the shit out of them while the rank and file T-34's eliminate the weaker Panzer III's and IV's. Sadly, this plan never got to approval stage and the Russians wasted several key opportunities to end the battle quickly.
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PO3 Donald Murphy
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The SS Tigers were definitely up to the challenge. Many solitary German tanks would engage multitudes as the war turned against Germany. The Russians learned not to pursue retreating Germans!
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SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth
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Great history share.
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