Hi Easy-8
Heyas
I suppose these losses have to be judged in context with overall tank production. For example, between 1940 and 1944 nearly 36,000 T-34 tanks were produced. Another 23,000 T-34-85s were built in 1944 and 1945.
True. The production output of the USSR was impressive. However many destroyed tanks along with dead crews can't be good. However the Soviets proved their ability to recover from massive losses and the Red Army became better and better as time went on much like that of the Union during the US Civil War. However building new weapons and replacing losses takes time and is a real :cens:. However, it is kinda like punching your enemy in the stomach really hard and knocking the wind outta him. He will recover but you will be free to attack full force as he tries to regain his strength.
Perhaps the critical factor were not the numbers of tanks but the experienced crews who got killed or maimed in both sides, since these are more difficult to replace. This is certainly the case with aircraft pilots.
Indeed. The loss of personal is much worse than the loss of equipment. You can replace equipment but you cannot replace people. Training a soldier is much like building a weapon - it takes time, energy and money and the more of the the above you put into both the better they will be.
A battlefield also presents an opportunity for both sides to use captured weapons, so the side which advances, gains abandoned weapons whilst the side which retreats, loses the immobile heavy weapons which can be easily repaired.
You are 100% correct.
Another myth was the superiority of the Panzers in the attack on the West in 1940. In fact the French tanks and their crews proved superior in the initial contacts but because they retreated from the battlefield most the French tanks which were damaged were lost and all the German ones were repaired.
The tactics and strategy as well as doctrine enployed by the Wehrmacht in France was the key to the swift victory that was produced. The French tank was better than its German Panzer counterpart however weakness in leadership led to their speedy down fall.