Quote Originally Posted by SwordsMaster
About your second point, read my second link. Man for man, the germans were superior as were the japanese. Their morele was higher, they were better equipped and had better weapons. Compare the King Tiger with the Sherman, and you'll see the difference.
I seriously doubt that the average German soldier was (significantly) more motivated then a British or American soldier...the Russians is another story.

The idea of the Germans having better weapons and tanks is a bit one sided. For one thing, the French had better tanks at the start of the war like Stig mentioned. Panthers and Tigers weren't available straight away, you know.
About Russian tanks...they were generally easier to mantain (not as complex as German tanks) and were at first superior to the various Panzers the Germans fielded. Tigers weren't ready yet, and the Panthers were designed as a reaction to, and based on, the T-34. The Russians also had the hardy KV tanks, later made into the IS (Iosef Stalin) line of tanks. I read that the IS-3 could destroy a Panther by hitting its turret even at an unfavourable angle.
You're right though that the Shermans were pretty lackluster for tank-to-tank combat, though the British "Firefly" version was a major improvement.

Quote Originally Posted by Stig
It's hard to call Hitler an elected leader, yes he was choosen by the majority of the people, but would they vote for him if he would have said:
If you vote for me, I will kill all the Jews

No they wouldn't have done that, that came after Hitler was elected.
Hitler wasn't elected by a majority, he just managed to form a majority with another party and get himself appointed as Chancellor. And it's pretty improbable that he already had intentions of eradicating the jews as soon as he was appointed.