Summer, 1943 plans: Season 3 opener, Episode 51

(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.