URSS Tank losses during Great Patriotic War (22/06/1941 8/05/1945) (English Version)

Article fait par :Claude Balmefrezol

Mis en ligne le 08/11/2007 à 07:48:29

Tank losses during Great Patriotic War (22/06/1941 8/05/1945)
Рабоче-крестьянскаяКраснаяАрмия
French version

War means losses. And during this war Soviet Union means heavy losses. The victory over Germany was well paid for by immense losses of both human life and hardware.

On June, 22, 1941 Red Army had 14.200 tanks, 3800 our of them combat ready in the troops positioned on the Western boarder. Additionally, 8.400 were in reserve. The Army had also 48.900 pieces of artillery with 63.900 more in reserve.. It should be taken into account that the German Panzerwaffe did not have heavy or medium tanks at all as well like T-34 or KV 1.

1941 (begin barbarossa Operation)
 German Army, inflict terrifics losses  at the Red Army .Why ? absence of command and skill, collapsed communications and lack of air cover lead to the virtual annihilation of land troops but also the effect of the stalinian purges (1936 1938 ) In more one year will be executed or interned :
3 marshals/5
13 generals of army/15
8 admirals/9
50 generals of army corps/ 57
154 divisional general/186
16 political commisars/16
20 000 / 30 000 officers
98 members of the soviet supreme HQ/108.
 However, the tanks were lost not only due to the damage in combat. Disruption of the supply lines and the absence of repair & evacuation facilities resulted in as manylost tanks as the activity of the German Army. Surprising attack launched by German Army allowed capturing many tanks at places of storage.
After the attack factories were transferred  from the European part of the USSR to Siberia. This evacuation interrupted the production severely reducing the total number of tanks in the Army due to the losses, which can not for a while being compensated.

BT5	T40	T28
T/3476	KV1	T35

BT7	KV2

The next, 1942, was not any better. Numerous operations, such as defense of Kiev and counter-attacks, leaded to the loss of great many tanks. Notable is that the production of light tanks practically equaled to the number of medium tanks. Although it was already evident that the light tanks were not up to the demands of the modern warfare, the Red Army needed any tanks as the capacity of plants to produce T-34 and KV was limited. At the opération Braunschweig who the german advancing to Stalingrad followr two soviets opérations Uranus et Mars who take the VI th army on the trap
 

1943
This year see the end aof the  battle of Stalingrad with the liquidation of encircled German troops  the  De-blockade of Leningrad  and the battle of Kursk
At this greats battles we can e added a list of other offensive operations were paid by the loss of sufficient number of tanks,
But the chiefs of the Soviet supreme HQ after the  introduction of the new panzer llike Panther or Tiger decided to update the T34 .KV series were considered not worth the metal needed for it. The production of T-34 was increased. This fact is illustrated by the number of new medium tanks by times outnumbering both light and heavy. Out of 4400 self-propelled artillery pieces 1100 (25 %) pieces were lost.

KV85	T50
SU76	SU85

1944 The Red army win in all of fronts
The production of medium tanks is increased , But note the negligent number of received light tanks. In 1944, 13600 pieces of self-propelled artillery were produced totaling 16900 pieces out of which 6800 pieces (40.2 %) were lost. Despite this augmentation of tanks production 23700 tanks were destroyed.

T34/85	JS1	JS 2
SU100	SU 122	T60

The year of the victory, 1945, comprised big scale operations and the defeat of the Wehrmacht.  But the Cost of the Victory is very expensive
Because the Wehrmacht.   motivated by the fight in the Vaterland  resist at the Red Army. However, the employment of tanks in the hostile environment, featured by the big number of cities and villages with numerous possibilities of anti-tank warfare, resulted in the heavy losses despite the superiority in quantity and growing skill of the Red Army tankers. Out of 15100 pieces of self-propelled artillery 33 % (5000) were lost.  

 

JS3	T60

JSU152

End may 1945

 

 

All pictures are from Internet