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

There was a good article in WWII magazine recently that compared tank manufacturing philosophies between the US, USSR and Germany.

The basics were:

Tiger tanks took between 200,000-300,000 man hours to produce an cost $320,000 each.

Shermans took 10,000 man hours to produce and cost $33,500 each.

T-34's took 35,000 to 50,000 man hours to produce and cost $50,000 each.

Additionally the Soviets did a study and found that the average life of a tank was six months and the combat life expectancy was only 14 hours. They didn't put a lot of time/manpower in creating technologically superior tanks because they would be 'dead' in a relatively short period of time. Someone mentioned that the T-34's transmission was crap. The Soviet philosophy was "Why design and manufacture a superior transmission that will last 1,500 miles when the tank will not live that long?"

Regarding Lend-Lease, one of the best assets the Soviets received from the US were soft skinned vehicles. The US sent over 400,000 jeeps and trucks to them allowing for increased logistics. Most German units stilled relied upon horse drawn transport for most of the war:

"Despite highly ballyhooed emphasis on employment of mechanized forces and on rapid movement, the bulk of German combat divisions were horse drawn throughout World War II."

LINK