Produce the Panther or stick with more Panzer IV/Tigers?

Table 10. Russo-German Tank Balance. Barbarossa, 1941
Russians
T-26 A-C c.12000
ВТ 2,5.7 c.5000
T-34 А, В c.1200
KV-1, 2 c.582
Germans
Pz.Kw. II 746
TNHP 38 812*
Pz.Kw. III 1065
Pz.Kw. IV 479

* Number indudes some older TNHS 35 vehicles.

"In the opening days of the war the German 256th Infantry Division, advancing from the northwest toward Bialystok, was forced to stop and defend itself against Soviet tank attacks from 24 to 26 June at Kuznica. The infantry division antitank guns and attached self-propelled storm artillery destroyed 250 Soviet tanks in this engagement{17} and contributed to pinning down and encircling huge Soviet forces in the Bialystok pocket.{18} "

÷ÏÅÎÎÁÑ ÌÉÔÅÒÁÔÕÒÁ : éÓÔÏÒÉÑ ×ÏÊÎ : Stolfi R. H. S. Hitler's Panzers East: World War II Reinterpreted

So out of those "21,000" tank losses how many were from AT guns, artillery and other factors? How many were actually from tank to tank encounters?

 

Yea, that's the same "21,000" figure. I'm not in a position to dispute it or the other ones if it is inaccurate. It's just what I remember reading.

Even if we were to discount Tiger claims by "half", that'll still leave the weapon at a 6:1 "kill ratio" in terms of combat actions. A single Tiger unit cost around 2.5 times (or a little more) more than a Panzer Mark IV. The Tiger units also used 60% more fuel per unit than a Panzer Mark IV, so the cost to fuel it was not so great.

To me, the Tiger Tank, with only around 1500 units or so fielded, was a relatively small project in the armament of the Third Reich and even in the sphere of German tank production.

I'd say the IS-2 was less effective in general due to some of its characteristics and the paltry material and human opposition it faced by the time it was fielded in large numbers.

I'm aware of all these Red Army mishaps, but I continue to hold the position that German Panzer Divisions in 1941 were at the height of their efficiency (even compared to 1942 Pzr divisions) even with less than adequate material.

And I'm very aware the Soviet tanks in 1941 were generally deployed poorly and in a world apart from the "reborn" Soviet formations deployed in 1943.They had a huge number of lights- I'm fully aware of this but so did half of the Panzer regiments, which had II's and 38t armed with the 20mm/37mm gun. They pretty vulnerable tanks as well- easily penetrated by a multitude of Soviet weaponry, including A/T rifles.

I agree, but what I stated in the earlier post was the fact that tank vs. tank fighting is only one of the many tasks that tank crewmen partake in. I think that the fact that the German Panzer Regiments and their motorized infantry achieved what they did in the victorious stages of Barbarrosa can be attributed to their degree of expertise. The great encirclements, etc.

When 1/3rd of best German Officers and NCOs fell on the battlefield by the end of the Moscow, the Panzer divisions would no longer have the ability to do anything like it again.