The Importance of the Eastern Front.

[Facehardened]

The Eastern Front is the single most important front during the second world war. Its size and scope dwarf other theaters of war; on the eve of operation Barbarossa the axis powers had amassed 173 divisions from the baltic to the black sea, in comparison the Western Allies amassed at its peak during the Italian campaign a mere 25 divisions. The Soviet Union in June 1941 had 240 field divisions, of which 213 faced off against the Axis on the U.S.S.R's Western frontier. Many major advancements in weapons technology had there birth in due course by events on the eastern front, The Soviet Union has progressed from the T28 medium tank in the begining of the war, to what is for all acounts the best medium tank of the war the T34; and the Germans advanced there guns from the 50mm l42 of The Panzer III g-h models to the 75l43 of the Panzer IVf2, to the truly awe inspiring 75mm l70 of the Panther. And while the Soviets never truely mastered warfare on the tactical level as well as there German adversary, they mastered it far above the germans in the area of grand strategy.

[Dominic 'Dragon' Cassidy]

I totally agree, plus the Eastern Front is the coolest when it comes to game. Also to go into detail, The allies were 1,452,000 strong in Operation Neptune (Landing part of Overlord). At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis had: 5.6 Million Infantry, 3,600 tanks and 4,389 Aircraft. The USSR had: 12 Million Infantry, 12-15,000 Tanks, and 8,000 Aircraft. I think also a lot of changes, like you sadi about the T-34 came out of the Eastern Front. The slanted armour design, is still used today, and probably got a lot of ideas from the USSR tanks of WW2. You can see the tanks designed in 1946-1950 and the rest of the Pre-War period, the Russian designs already start to look quiet like the more modern tanks.

Welcome to the team Facehardened.

[ConquestSavior]

A bit more on those division numbers; from the onset of Barbarossa to December of 41, I believe Germany destroyed somewhere near 260 Russian divisions, while their Intelligence placed the Russians at below 300.  During that same time period, Russia raised over 360 brand new divisions!  This is all from rough memory, I don't have access to a majority of my books right now, or I would give some more precise numbers.

[Facehardened]

Thank you. It does go along way to showing the scale of the conflict.

[Lone Commissar]

Without the Eastern Front the Western Allies couldn't have won the war it's all down to numbers the Soviets killed 3.5 million Germans and the Western Allies only .5 million.

[Dominic 'Dragon' Cassidy]

Yeh, you could say, Hitler made us win the war. If he didn't decide to create Operation Barbarossa, he wouldn't have lost, 3.5 million fighting troops, and would have been able to have a real serious threat at the beaches, D-Day would have failed, and probably Italy wouldn't have been taken also. But then, possibly, things would have changed, and we could have still won, but would have taken longer.

[Lone Commissar]

The atomic bomb and more attacks like Dresden would have happened in Europe in all likelyhood.

[Dominic 'Dragon' Cassidy]

Probably, but the war might have lasted longer and had more deaths. Whats Dresden? Thats in Germany, right?

Never mind, looked it up. Saw some stuff about people thinking that the Atomic Bombs and Dresden were war drimes. I think that the death toll at Hiroshima and Nagasaki together would have been less i think than, the death toll  if the US were forced to land on Japan or any of the inner islands. Even though Japan was close to defeat, after the way they fought through out the war, the main land, wouldn't have been given up easily.

[William]

Well Japans whole way of doing things in there war was screwed up, big time, and it showed. They would even put people on an island to defend it, we would just ignore it, drive by, and they would leave them there....  All kinds of dumb things.

[ConquestSavior]

The longer the war lasted, and the less involved Germany was with a war against Russia... things start to look a bit scary.  All of Germany's nuclear material, scientists, and records were confiscated by western Allied forces.  These records are classified until 2045.  There is substantial evidence going around that Germany was much closer to a nuclear bomb than anyone thought, but no one will know fore sure for almost another 40 years.  Eye-witness accounts tell of what appeared to be a 1 kiloton or less test bomb going off in late 1944.  Loud explosion, earthquake, and a small white mushroom cloud.  In 1945, there was supposedly a test of a dirty bomb, used on slave laborers.  Supposedly several German scientists and SS officers got radiation poisoning from this as well, since no one knew at the time what the effects of such a bomb would be.  Some of the evidence for this includes a patent for a plutonium weapon, and an attempt at the Nuremburg trials to hold Albert Speer accountable for the dirty bomb test on slave laborers.  The KGB is said to have captured a film of the dirty bomb test, as well as soil samples, but so far they have denied having anything of the sort.  On top of all this, Germany spent barely 1% of what America spent on the manhattan project for their atomic programs.  It's scary what might have happened if they had really tried or been given more time.  Hitler with a bomb would not have been good for the world.  But with Russian Forces advancing on all fronts, and constant allied bombing raids, it's amazing that German scientists accomplished anything at all.

[Facehardened]

The what ifs. Its why so many people enjoy wargamming. What if Germany made the Tiger I its primary tank in 1942, or had pushed the developement of the Me 262 Jet fighter. I wish that a game would come out in which you could handle the stratigic situation, as in Hearts of Iron, and the Tactical as in COH. Ataris Axis & Allies RTS was a general attempt, but far to simplistic. I can only sit and hope a game company desides to do it right, so we can all explore the what if a bit more.

[Lone Commissar]

What like a Total War game but with better research and economics?

[Tim270]

Personally i like the north African campaign, it puts commanders to the test, nothing but open desert and sand so you have to implement tactics very well.

[UeArtemis]

In 9 October 1942 Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of USSR has published the Edict about determination and abolitions of the institute of military commissar in Red Army . The Institute of  military commissar was abolished, but in lieu thereof was entered institute of the deputies of commander on political work (“Politruk”). Full responsibility for combat and political condition of a parts, join and institutions was entrusted on commander. In 10 October action of the Edict was wide-spread and on ВМФ.
In Red Army abolished institute of military commissar. The Navigator 8 air army and Hero of Soviet Union colonel Selivanov so has commented this event: "Finally! That sponger will not be in aviations. For example. What did the commissar of the staff airdivision? Nothing!".

P.S. I want to see in your addon company about taking Berlin (not 1941!!!).

[sam]

Ya if it wasn't for the eastern front the Germans wouldn't have the heavy tanks such as the tiger and panthers. It also would mean the American and British would have a much harder time to invade France so the eastern front is for sure the most important front in the European theater of war.