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

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But y'all are correct. I only mentioned it because the burden born by the Commies in defeating the socialists is often overlooked. They spilled the majority of the blood and are still so haunted by it that it directly influences their relations with the world today.

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The peoples themselves have a complicated, disprespectful history - we all know what Hitler and many Germans thought of Russians and Slavs, generally - "subhuman" - however, the reverse perspective is interesting and telling as well.

Most Russian words for foreign languages are some variation on the country of origin - just as we have pairs in English: France/French, Italian/Italian, Spain/Spanish, England/English.

The Russian word for the country of Germany is a recognizable cognate. However, the word for the German language is related to the word describing a person who is mute or cannot speak. It is similar to the Byelorussian surname of Mr. Spock - Nimoy, which also loosely translates as "Mute" or "Nonspeaker".

Germans and Russians don't like each other like they're from the old neighborhood.