Bernd
04/29/2021 (Thu) 19:36:43
No.43446
del
Interesting find related to Kursk.
Kursk: The German View by Steven H. Newton, De Capo Press, 2002 - available on libgen
In Chapter 15 - Was Kursk a Decisive Battle? - the author cites and inspects another book: Kursk 1943: A Statistical Analysis by Zetterling and Frankson which examines the German losses and the Soviet too to some extent. Their conclusion is that German losses wasn't that heavy to make Kursk a decisive battle (3% of the losses of 1943), but Newton put the numbers into different light, showing that Germans suffered losses in those units which held their main offensive capabilities, and that was crippled.
But, why I'm writing this: they also provide numbers about Soviet tanks from June 30 and December 31 1943. Newton have things to say for that too, but gives a sum (p414):
"Soviet tank losses during the period easily exceeded 15,000, and possibly approached 19,000, against German losses of only 3,841"
It's pretty safe to say German papers were flooded by a deluge of reports about Soviet depletion.