re: How were German armored divisions so much more elite than their US counterparts

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Quite frankly I don't think the Western front in WW2 was nearly as grand as it is remembered the West. As I think has been referenced, Hitler's real goal was the east. He believed the Slavs were a subhuman race that didn't deserve that land, to Hitler.. it belonged to the Aryan's. I believe I've heard figures reference for every 1 German division on the Western front there was about 20 on the Eastern front, and "D-Day" type assaults in terms of number of troops and troop deaths occurred on a daily basis in the East.

I say all that to kind of back up your point. The US had nearly all of its Navy and Marine focus in the Pacific as well as some Army, whereas the Germans had the majority of their troops in the East.

It was never a "lets put all the German might against the American might and see what happens" kind of thing that I think it is sometimes depicted as being.

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Most certainly, and any serious student of the war knows that. What is the stat? 9 out of every 10 Wehrmacht killed were killed by the Red Army? It's something close to that.

However, those who advocate for German dominance do not realize the following:

1. We were also fighting a two-front war, and a very large chunk of our service was confronting another vicious, large, motivated, and heavily armed enemy halfway across the world (by ourselves, by the way)

2. The absolute advantage we and the British had in naval power from early 1942 onward

3. Logistics: we were both supplying the British and Soviets and choking out the Germans - real students of war understand the importance of logistics. Operations drive logistics, and logistics drive operations

4. Manpower: we legions upon legions upon legions of reserves waiting to go after the Wehrmacht if need be waiting back in the States. We had an active force of almost 15 million, and only 1 million or so were ever in duty at one time in the ETO