binarypunisher wrote:
Because there was so many Russians.
Quoted for truth. The Red Army had entire regiments of troops armed with 41's and 43's, with at least 3 such regiments per division. That's something on the order of 25,000 of them in each division, all massed along one small front not more than 5 miles wide. Toss in 6 medium machineguns, and 18 Degtyarevs', and 10 50mm mortars per company, and add the 25-40 82mm mortars and 30-50 12.7mm heavy mg's assigned to regiment, and you're looking at a shitstorm of lead.
The Soviets did everything in mass. The Soviets planned and fought at the Army level (as in 5 infantry divisions + 1 artillery division + 2 tank divisions = 1 "Army"). Stalin had a saying that "Quantity has a quality all its own."
To give an example: There were 24 launchers and 96 rocket ammo trucks in my grandfathers battery. That's not counting the trucks for fuel, small arms ammo, commo, and the various other needs. There were up to 20 batteries in his regiment in 1945, and at least 7 other regiments in the division... and they fired every launcher in the battery at least 4 times per day during their advance into Germany.
