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

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No they dont. The T34 is overrated, period.

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The Soviets would have defeated Nazi Germany, without the second front, no later than 1947. It would have been on the back of T-34s.

I'm not endorsing Soviet tactics, but the equipment itself was fairly revolutionary and ultimately influenced post-war tank design to this very day.

I'm not saying the T-34 is perfect, either. And there's a lot to be said about 1200 units a month - when you consider the final count was some nearly 50k T-34s produced, roughly the same as all German tank production, combined from about '36 to '45.

But, various features of the T-34 were adopted in the design of the Panther - and I consider the Panther the best all around tank in the world until the Soviets produced the T-55, some 10 years after the war.

But even the Panther had problems - weak side armor, final drive problems made it relatively unreliable, etc. The perfect is the enemy of the good.

No U.S. tank was the equal of German or Soviet contemporaries until the Pershing - and only limited numbers and action are available to evaluate this late war U.S. design.

But our tactics and logistics were superior, particularly our offense against the Germans defense.