-Volkskommissar W. A. Malyschew said, when he visited the Tankfactory 112 in Krasnoje Sormowo, that it was a high price losing 6000 Tanks for this victory. - In 1993 the russian defense ministery published documents, which said, that the red Army losses were 866.000 total. Does someone know somethin´ about the losses of the red and the german army ? Cheers, Che.
6000 tanks lost? That means Russia lost every one of its tanks fielded twice! Only about 1500 tanks on both sides were engaged in combat for the duration of operation Citadel, so that figure must be wrong. Those Red Army casualties are correct according to government documents; 250,000 dead, 600,000 wounded... I havent actually found two sources which actually agree on the number of casualties/tank losses in kursk, though manpower seems consistent at ~1,300,000 and ~650,000... most sources seem to denote German casualties as comprising 3/4 of the Red armies'... with a significant advantage in tank-tank losses... Tactically the Germans inflicted much much more damage, however as a price, they were unable to replace their own losses Here are all the sources i read http://www.factbites.com/topics/Battle-of-Kursk Some say Germany lost 100,000 dead, some say Germany lost 850,000 dead... making sense of such statistics about Kursk is ridiculous
These are some very high casualties indeed! The Germans concentrated around 900.000 men and the Soviets 1.337.166(Central Front with 711.575 men and Voronez Front with 625.591) I have the following numbers about Soviet casualties; 43.330 dead, 24.000 captured and 107.517 wounded which seems far more logical than the 250.000 dead and 600.000 wounded. Also, i think the number of tanks is very low smeghead... My numbers are; Germans 1865 modern tanks 384 older tanks 533 assault guns 200 tank destroyers 100 Pz III flamethrowers Total 3082 Soviets 5340 tanks(3475 were T-34s) About tank losses, the Soviets admit losing completely 1614 tanks
Using "The Battle of Kursk" by David M. Glantz and Jonathan M. House, as a source, Soviet casualites are around 180,000 (70,330 "irrevocable" and 107,517 "medical") and German around 50,000 killed, wounded and missing (20,720 in 9th Army July 5-11 and 29,102 in Amy group South from July 5-20). Tank losses are given as 1,614 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns lost out of 5,035 committed to action. German tanks, assualt guns and self-propelled gun losses are estimated at 1,612 damaged and 323 destroyed. In the ensuing Soviet offensive operations at Orel total personnel losses were 429,890 and 2,586 tanks and assault guns (against an estimated 500 German). In the Soviet Belgorod offensive total personnel losses were 255,566 with losses of 1,864 tanks and self-propelled guns against an estimated 327 German. There is no estimate of German personnel losses in either Soviet offensive. So if you consider the German and Soviet offensive operations as defining a single campaign, the Soviet losses were around 866,000 and over 6,000 tanks and self-propelled guns. At a guess overall German losses may have been over 100,000 and 1,100 AFVs.
Are we talking about operation Citadel only or the entire series of offensive operations that followed? Kursk, Ponyri, Orel, Kharkov, etc... I.e. What exact time frame are we talking about for those last set of statistics? If we are referring only to the German Kursk offensive which ended in withdrawl of the forces the 16th of July, then casualties were approximately 56,000 German and 177,000 Soviet, and a huge disparity in favor of tank kills in the Germany's favor... If we are including the Russian counteroffensives; July 5th until August 22nd; by which time Orel and Kharkov were re-taken; then casualties totalled ~450,000 German and 860,000 Soviet... This number may seem large, but remember that during the entire year of 1943 German losses in the east totalled 1.6 million, so given that the Russian counter offensive was one of the pivotal operations of 1943, and that the Germans were in full retreat for July 16th onwards, it is hardly suprising that the Germans took such high losses at Orel/Kharkov... Field Marshal Mannstein complained in late August that Army Group South had recieved insufficient re-inforcements after the losses during Citadel... He put the casualties of Army Group South alone at 133,000 by late August, whereas he had only recieved an additional 30,000 troops...
In the battle Germany lost 500,000 soldiers, 900 tanks destroyed and 200 aicraft shot down. The Soviet Union lost 607,737, 1,500 tanks destroyed and 1,000 aircraft shot down.
