They needed every twin-engined bomber they could get. Nobody forced them to accept 3000 A-20s, yet they employed them heavily, and the crews who used them were happy about them. The Pe-3 was a fighter version of the Pe-2, and was only used in small numbers. The Tu-2 didn't see widespread service until the second half of 1944. So the A-20 was really the second most numerous light bomber in soviet service.
Ask for 4 engined bombers and get inferior twin engine bombers... of course they are not going to refuse them, but they are hardly going to say they won the war either.
Li-2 is a licence produced DC-3... military name for DC-3 in the US is C-47...
As for the armor of the Sherman, at that point of the war the T-34s armor wasn't really anything to talk about. As soviet tankers joked: "Our armor is crap but our tanks are faster". And the Sherman had some advantages, being much more ergonomical than the T-34. All veterans who served on Shermans tells that. Really, the M4A2 with 75 mm gun was equal to the T-34/76, and the M4 with 76 mm gun equal to the T-34/85. Certainly, the Shermans was used in the same way as the T-34.
Bull. The armour was poorly angled and while thicker in places offered no better protection, yet was much higher. The 50 cal SMGs that came with the tank were useless in winter and wouldn't reliably penetrate winter clothing at combat ranges. The 76mm gun was no equivalent to the 85mm gun.
Of course they used the Shermans like medium tanks... they were just not as effective as T-34s despite being designed and built later.
Russians - Land-Lease was very insignificant.
Americans - Land-Lease saved Stalin.
Hehe I think it's either downplayed or overplayed.
I remember a quote from a Soviet Interpreter in the 1950s when the west actually started claiming Lend Lease was critical to the Soviets winning on the eastern front... he said something along the lines of "His mother died of starvation in Leningrad but US Spam won the war"... has new meaning now I suppose with the new meaning for spam... during WWII I remember it being called the second front by most armies...
I have to mention US made trucks and jeeps who were more important than tanks or planes SU received. Logistical needs for Soviet union were massive. Pretty much trucks were only thing what russians really needed.
They used everything they got, but most of what they got was too late to be of any critical significance and it was never the latest equipment... more often it was obsolete material that was handed down as the western force that supplied it was supplied with new gear.
My opinion is that it relieved evacuated and overloaded industry to some point until it picked itself up.
except that by the time they got it sorted out and moving at a pace that was even useful the critical periods had already passed, and it just ended up making some things easier.
By the way Russian chauvinism and ignorance sometimes is not so different to american.
Yeah, you can say that, but does that make it true?
I have heard Russians and pro Russians say some silly things, but how many Russians think the main and most powerful US fighter was based on a pre war Russian fighter? I have chatted to an American who thought the I-16 Polikarpov was a ripoff of the Geebee racer. Most Americans to date think the P-51 was the most important aircraft of the war... even though it did not enter service till 1944 when the result had already been decided... an impressive aircraft but it didn't actually see much of it in the over all scheme of things. Funny how strategic bombing didn't deter the Brits but supposedly won WWII, yet German production increased... seems killing all those german women and children and old people wasn't the most effective way to defeat germany afterall.
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