Comments on: On Allied Tank Casualties in the ETO and German AT Weapons

By: Priory_of_Sion

Priory_of_Sion — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 18:25:22 +0000

There are estimates for German losses yes.

~8% of German Tank casualties on the Western Front came from air power. Most of these kills were rockets. Cannons and bombs likely only destroyed very few panzers. Aircraft were more important when they attacked supply columns instead of tanks themselves.

A broken suspension might take a couple hours. There more extensive the damage the more time.

Tank repairablility and burning are the most obscure statistics according to the ORO report. It makes a statement that a burned tank isn’t unrepairable though. I would think the percent of burned tanks that were repaired is far lower.

<2 casualties. A high # of these casualties happened outside the tank.

By: Asian

Asian — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 17:28:11 +0000

By: Souroy

Souroy — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 15:20:30 +0000

Half-related to the topic but could be interesting, French tanks losses during WW1:

748 lost in action out of the 3473 delivered to the French army (~2300 available on the 11th November 1918).
- 657 by guns (301 CA1 and St-Chamond – 356 FT)
- 16 by mines (3 CA1 – 13 FT)
- 4 by AT rifles (3 CA1 – 1 FT)
- 71 from indetermined causes (1 CA1 – 70 FT)
For the loss of 2903 crewmen (including 459 injured).

Source: Historique succinct du char de combat, Cdt L. Fouquet.

By: Westonbirt_EU

Westonbirt_EU — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 12:42:50 +0000

PANTHEEEEER

By: specialistHUN

specialistHUN — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 12:29:52 +0000

I prefer VK30.02D.

By: WolvG

WolvG — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:52:33 +0000

“Distribution of casualties among crewmen is roughly even,unlike WoT’s radiomen”

So is it awkward that my gunners die more than the radiomen? D=

By: delict

delict — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:39:57 +0000

very interesting article.
assault gun battalions claimed some 25 000 – 30 000 knocked out enemy tanks. not bad considering that they were originaly build for infantry support role (and therefore carried majority of HE shells).

german war files – STUG III/IV – exelent documentary
http://youtu.be/08wP9JODO78

Cologne tank duel – example of ww2 tank combat
http://youtu.be/NBI9d0-IfEM

By: WolvG

WolvG — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:36:29 +0000

i prefer Tig.

By: crazytony0

crazytony0 — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:02:36 +0000

hi,

First of all, a very great and intersting article! A have a few more questions if i may:

- Are there any comparable statistics for german losses? I ask because i wonder how much diffrence air superiority combined with designated fighterbombers and tankbusters make as a diffrence.
- How powerfull and acurate are airborne weapons? Was it capable of taking on medium and heavy tanks or only the lightest armoured ones?
- How long did it usualy take to get a damaged tank back into battle? (ofc this depends a lot on wich damage they received but isnt there some kind of table like e.g. suspension knocked out takes an average of 3 days)
- is a burnt out tank repairable? Afterall if the fire isnt to hot to melt the metal, a new fuel tank, engine, radio, electric wiring and gearbox should do the trick no? However i gues that changes the hardness of steel since it most likly gets hot enough for carbon to get free and it will cool down to slowly to trap it back.
- how many crew members got killed/wounded when a tank is hit by a HEAT projectile?

thx a lot

By: Cartman

Cartman — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 08:49:21 +0000

In 1943 about 3000 StuG III L/43 and L/48 were built. The number of Panzer IV L/43 and L/48 is about the same while 1768 Panthers and 648 Tigers were built that year.
In 1944 the Panzer IV production was not raised much, around 3100 were built but 3749 Panthers, 3840 StuG III, 623 Tiger I and 377 Tiger II.
All other tanks, tank destroyers or TDs were produced only in numbers of a few hundred (except Jagdpanzer 38(t) of which 1457 were produced in 1944).

I don’t know about the distribution to the various fronts but I assume most Panthers and Tigers went to the eastern front so StuG III and Panzer IV should have been the vehicles encountered most at the western front.

The total amount of tank destroyers and SPGs (not self propelled artillery) was only 7800, one third of them being Jagdpanzer 38(t). That’s less than the total amount of StuG III (8587).