(Originally posted 22 June 2024)
Three seasons! 51 episodes!
This season begins with a catch-up on the Eastern Front, and the planning that led to the biggest battle in the history of warfare: Operation Zitadelle and the Battle of Kursk.
Map: The Kursk salient, spring 1943
Source: Wikipedia
Production and loss tables
Table 1: Comparative armaments production, January 1941 – December 1942
1941
1942
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
Rifles
1,359.000
2,421,000
1,370,000
4,049,000
Machine guns
96,000
149,000
117,000
356,000
Artillery
3,800
41,000
41,000
128,000
Tanks + self-propelled guns
8,400
6,600
6,200
24,700
Combat aircraft
12,400
11,600
21,700
German and Soviet war production. 1942–1944 (thousands of units)
1942
1943
1944
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
Germany
USSR
RIfles + submachine guns
1,602
4,619
2,509
4,801
3,085
3,006
Machine guns
117
356
263
458
509
439
Artillery
41
128
74
130
148
122
Tanks + self-propelled guns
6
24
11
24
18
29
Combat aircraft
12
22
19
30
34
33
Soviet tank and self-propelled gun losses
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Tanks and self-propelled guns available
28,200
35,700
47,900
59,100
48,900
Losses
Heavy tanks
900
1,200
1,300
900
900
Medium tanks
2,300
6,600
14,700
13,800
7,500
Light tanks
17,300
7,200
6,400
2,300
300
Self-propelled guns
0
100
1,100
6,800
5,000
Source: Mawdsley, Thunder in the East, 2016
Images:
The German Tiger tank,Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger Ausf. E
Tiger tank in Kharkiv, 1943
The German Panther tank, Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
Source: Wikipedia.
Sources:
Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017
Wikipedia: The Battle of Kursk.