Actually, more were made, but there were 95,000 of the three most popular WWII models made.

That's a lot of tanks. You'd expect that many in one region would affect the rotation of the Earth!

I had no idea they had that impact, and you're right. They did. Go figure. And that country was more conducive to tanks than much of the world. The Soviets had a scorched-earth policy as they withdrew, and the Germans destroyed what was left as they retreated. Kinda hard on the ol' infrastructure.

Regarding the long-range bombers, Tom Brosz has a fascinating citation regarding one hell of a bomber for the times. Worth following his link.

I've read that after it was too late, Hitler insisted his jet aircraft program focus on longer range bombers at the expense of jet fighters, in order to retaliate for the bombing coming from Britain. He was pretty upset about that, but didn't take it out on Goering.

Later, they went for the fighters, but it was too late. A year earlier and they could have made it very, very hot for bombers coming from England.

A neighbor of mine recently died, and he had stories of his time as a B-17 co-pilot for 30 missions over Europe. He didn't like the flak, didn't like the fighters, was happy to land. He said that the English planes used the same airfields for their night missions as the USAF did for their day missions. Apparently there were more than a few collisions between bombers taking off pre-dawn, and planes coming back late.

(As an aside, he said that the English met returning flights with anything the crew wanted, free. Unlimited stuff to eat and booze. Of which he partook generously in order, he said, to not insult the hospitality of the Brits. He always added, as they all did, that the US Red Cross also had carts, with everything for sale.)

Interesting post and point. Thanks a lot.

Arf