German tank divisions were swamped by T34s and Shermans, but not outclassed by them.
Yeah.
Tactically the big cats were superior. At least against tanks.
Strategically the T34s and Shermans were superior, because you they were much easier to make than the Big Cats, and were often better at what you wanted a tank for most of the time, anyway. (Making infantry hate their life.)
Operationally the T34s and Shermans were also better, because they were quite a bit more mobile. Not just because of Germany's unexpected fuel difficulties (no one could have predicted that challenging most of the developed world at once to a war would take so long), but because of maintenance issues.
I think it's really design where you see the strength of Russian technology. The T34s had some real issues, but overall they were a great way of making more out of less. The German stuff like the MG34, Panther, G41, and MP44, to name a few basic tools of war, had some great features and showed a high level of engineering, and were often innovative, but in a lot of ways were better suited to the testing field or a textbook than actual combat or mass manufacture.
Practical design is something the Russians seemed to excel at. Most especially compared to the Germans.
The German Stugs were a more reasonable approach. But mostly based on the dated PzIIIs, and they
were somewhat outclassed by the T34s and Shermans.
If they'd thrown all the engineering expertise and time, not to mention manufacturing efforts, spent developing or making the Panthers, Tigers, Stugs, and various variants and other vehicles at
just the Panther they might have had a
really fearsome tank. Something they could manufacture in the numbers of the Stugs, with the best features of the Panther but without most of the problems.
But they didn't.
The Germans also had doctrinal problems. Invaded from two directions, they still had trouble groking the role of the defender. A Panther a mile away hidden in some bocage, or a platoon along a ridge out on the Steppe, was a terribly difficult tactical problem for an Allied force. (Unless you had good air support, or could just bypass and surround.) But way too many were squandered on risky counter-attacks.
The Russians, OTOH, were scary-good by the end of the war and coordinating massive operations and keeping the Germans off balance. Not just a horde of angry (and often desperate) Russians, but a cleverly led horde.