Production and losses of tanks

Soviet and German production and losses of tanks on the Russian Front from 1941 to 1945 and could the Red Army have won the war alone ?

Knocked-out Russian T-34
Knocked-out Russian T-34 tank on the Eastern Front.

t arrow2 back to Part I: Russian vs German AFVs in WW II

If the Western Allies would not take into consideration, and the Russians had not received the 11,900 armored vehicles by Lend-Lease, and all German armored vehicles of the Wehrmacht, which had been lost in the West and the South, could have been deployed on the Eastern Front a kill-to-loss ratio of 2.45 to 1 is needed to destroy all 23,300 Russian AFVs on 22 June 1941 plus all 99,150 vehicles built during the war (a total of 122,450 AFVs). This figure is well below the actual ratio of 2.91 to 1 achieved on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Could the Red Army have won the war alone?

This kill-to-loss ratio destroys another recent myth, which has recently come again into fashion, which refers to the situation on the Eastern Front. It is said that the Russians could have won the Second World War without any support from the US or Commonwealth forces, above all because of their large quantity of produced T-34 tanks.

This assertion is untenable, as is shown by the loss ratio – and even before the increased production in Germany had been taken into account, because of the absence of the Allied bombing war. At the same time, the increasing German air superiority on the Eastern Front from 1943 on would have acted, while the Red Army would have been deprived of half of its motorized transport, which consisted of Lend-Lease vehicles.
The 9,000 to 10,000 88mm Flak guns, which would not have been necessary to defend Germany against Allied air raids, could have been used as an effective anti-tank force on the Eastern Front.
In addition, e.g. tor the approximately 1,000 then non-necessary German U-boats, other war materials – such as tanks – could have been produced.


Approx. monthly Production and Losses of Russian and German Armored Vehicles (Germany: only tanks and assault guns, but on all fronts):

MonthRussian productionRussian lossesGerman productionGerman losses (on all fronts)
June 1941500 2,200207179
July 1941800 7,000399834
Aug 1941900 5,000356697
Sep 1941600 6,000360299
Oct 1941500 1,000374376
Nov 1941550 1,000402421
Dec 1941 900 1,600 396568
TOTAL 1941 6,274 23,800 3,796 (incl SP-guns) 2,853 (on all fronts)
Jan 1942900500350400
Feb 1942900600410250
March 194290080033080
April 1942 1,500300400100
May 1942 1,600 1,30049090
June 1942 1,700800440200
July 1942 1,700 3,000440350
Aug 1942 1,700 3,200400250
Sep 1942 1,700 2,000380300
Oct 1942 1,700 1,200370220
Nov 1942 1,800 1,000410400
Dec 1942 1,800 1,300 530 180
TOTAL 1942 24,690 16,000 6,189 incl SP-guns 3,105 on all fronts incl SP-guns)
Jan 1943 1,800 1,000380420
Feb 1943 1,800 1,000460 1,810 (Stalingrad plus 350 Panzer I out of service)
March 1943 1,800 1,000580610
April 1943 1,800100620450
May 1943 2,000 less than 100 1,100310
June 1943 2,000 less than 10079040
July 1943 2,000 3,800810820
Aug 1943 2,000 3,800760700
Sep 1943 2,200 2,000920560
Oct 1943 2,200 1,500 1,050620
Nov 1943 1,900 1,800720740
Dec 1943 1,900 1,500 1,130 690
TOTAL 1943 24,006 16,200 10,747 incl SP-guns 8,992 on all fronts incl SP-guns
Jan 1944 1,900 3,000 1,130800
Feb 1944 1,900 1,700 1,120570
March 1944 1,900 1,700 1,190420
April 1944 1,900 1,900 1,340 1,020
May 1944 2,000200 1,400360
June 1944 2,200500 1,600700
July 1944 2,400 2,000 1,650 2,080
Aug 1944 2,500 2,200 1,620 1,080
Sep 1944 2,500 1,800 1,450 1,280
Oct 1944 2,500 3,000 1,530 1,060
Nov 1944 2,600800 1,790440
Dec 1944 2,800 1,000 1,780 710
TOTAL 1944 28,933 19,800 18,284 incl SP-guns 12,079 incl SP-guns on all fronts)
Jan 1945 2,900 4,000 1,690 1,220 (total 1,433 incl SP-guns in Jan 1945 on all fronts)
Feb 1945 2,900 4,100 1,200 (total 2,931 incl SP-guns until Feb 1945)?
March 1945 3,000 4,200??
April 1945 3,600 4,200??
May 1945 3,900 4,100??
UNTIL JUNE 1945 26,297 20,600 ? ?

German tank production and losses June-December 1941:

Production (losses)June 1941July 1941Aug 1941Sep 1941Oct 1941Nov 1941Dec 1941Total
Pzkpfw I- (34)- (146)- (171)- (7)- (18)- (33)- (19)- (428)
PzKpfw II5 (16)27 (117)9 (106)26 (32)23 (65)50 (30)41 (92)181 (458)
Pzkpfw 35(t)- (26)- (26)- (26)- (26)- (26)- (26)- (6)- (162) monthly average
Pzkpfw 38(t)29 (33)80 (182)64 (183)63 (62)66 (85)50 (149)49 (102)401 (796)
Pzkpfw III (37mm)- (23)- (59)- (25)- (16)- (11)- (13)- (29)- (176)
PzKpfw III (50mm)88 (27)176 (164)185 (78)182 (104)174 (79)198 (116)198 (208)1,201 (776)
StuG III56 (3)47 (11)50 (26)38 (12)71 (23)46 (10)40 (19)348 (104)
PzKpfw IV29 (16)55 (111)43 (70)49 (23)40 (55)58 (38)56 (65)330 (378)
Pz.Befwg. (Command vehicles)0 (1)14 (18)5 (12)2 (17)0 (14)0 (6)12 (28)33 (96)
TOTAL207 (179)300 (834)356 (697)360 (299)374 (376)402 (421)396 (568)2,494 (3,374)

About 240 Pzkpfw II, III and IV were lost in North Africa.

 

button gosee also: Military Performance on the Russian Front


References and literature

Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation, Volume I – IIIB (Nigel Askey)
Krieg der Panzer (Piekalkiewicz)
World War II – A Statistical Survey (John Ellis)
Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (10 Bände, Zentrum für Militärgeschichte)
Kraftfahrzeuge und Panzer der Reichswehr, Wehrmacht und Bundeswehr (Werner Oswald)
Encyclopedia of German Tanks of World War Two (P.Chamberlain, H.L.Doyle)
Soviet Tanks and Combat Vehicles of World War Two (Steven J. Zaloga, James Grandsen)



for sharing:

2 thoughts on “Production and losses of tanks”

  1. Jentz reports Panzer 1 losses in 1941 same but includes tanks also rebuilt after koed and those report 1047 inventory Panzer 1 jan 1941 to 728 l dec 1941. The total rebuilds 478 rebuilds in that year against 834 lost leaving an inventory of 728 dec 1941.

    No one reports AFV KOed and then rebuilt.

  2. Based upon the estimated Soviet tank park and # of combat aircraft available on VE Day, the numbers are within a few % points of the number of tanks and aircraft supplied under Lend Lease by the US/UK! And the number of motor vehicles supplied by the US and Canada was greater than the total of MV’s made by Germany! And much higher quality to boot!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top