1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Summary

"The commissars explained tankers that tank is burning 5-6 hours and to leave is a crime. . . "

From memoirs "Guard Tank Army".

The war means losses. The war waged by the 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. This power was to meet advancing German armadas in the early hours of June 22. It should be taken into account that the German Panzerwaffe did not have heavy tanks at all as well as that the Soviet medium tanks T-34 mod. 1940-41 were much better their German counterparts.

1941

The table gives somewhat rounded up figures of changes in the number of tanks in 1941. Inflicted losses to the German Army, although comparable in percentage, can not be compared in the absolute numbers. The absence of command and skill, collapsed communications and lack of air cover lead to the virtual annihilation of land troops. However, it must be understood that 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 in "plug'n'play' mint condition. The production facilities were evacuated from the European part of the USSR to Siberia. The new works were started in many cases from nothing with equipment installed just under the clear sky. The 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.

1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Summary

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.

 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Summary

1943 was the year of the great battles. Stalingrad (Uranium) with the liquidation of encircled German troops (The Circle), De-blockade of Leningrad (The Spark), Citadel/Kursk battle and the list of other offensive operations were paid by the loss of sufficient number of tanks, enough to make Party bosses to think that T-34 and KV exhausted their fighting capabilities as new samples of the German armor appeared on the battlefields. Specifically KV was 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.

1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Summary

 The results of successes of the Red Army in 1944 are in the table.

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 the decrease of percentage of losses, just imagine 23700 burned tanks.

1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Summary

The year of the victory, 1945, comprised big scale operations and the defea tof the Wermacht. The German Army, although motivated by the fight in the Vaterland itself, could not resist the huge numbers of 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.  

 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 Summary

During the war, from June 22, 1941 to May 10. 1945 were lost, including manufactured and obtained under the lend-lease:

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