was change headers: The Fate of VM was: Baby MVS 4409

D.J.

The long 76.2 mm was a lot better than the short 75 mm, though not as good as the British 17-pdr (on the Sherman Firefly). The T-34 up-gunned from a fairly short 76.2 mm to relatively long 85 mm, but it wasn't really much better than the American long 76.2 mm because of the general poorer quality of Russian steel (and general all-around shoddiness in all aspects of production except for numbers).

That was the M-36 Jackson tank destroyer that had the 90 mm gun. These began to appear in the fall of 1944. The M-26 Pershing tank had a 90 mm gun, but didn't see much combat until the Rhine crossing. the Patton was the M-46 introduced after the war, but it was really a re-engined M-26 with a lot of other improvements, but there were so many changes that it became clbuttified as a new tank.

Yeah, the Germans were much more flexible and aggressive than the Allies were. German officers disobeying orders and getting away with it because they were the people on the spot with the most accurate view of the situation was not at all uncommon. It happened in 1866, 1870, WWI and WWII. Sometimes it led to bad things happening, but far more often that quality led to surprising successes because the German army was so much more flexible and adaptable than their enemies, who ended up confounded and confused by the pace of events.

--Larry