German causualties on the Russian front.

G

gladius

Active member
I'm not sure about these numbers but I think the Russians suffered 20 million casualties fighting the Germans in WWII. Not all of this was military some where also civilian. Does anyone know the military count?

Also does anyone know how many casualties the German military sufferred against the Russians? I think it's around 1 or 2 million but I'm not sure.
 
SU Civilians: 7.420.379
SU soldiers: 19.180.000
German overall military casualties: 3.500.000 (including Austrians and Sudeten Germans)

(Source: German Wikipedia.org)

In a tv documentary about the liberation of Europe, they said that nearly 80% of the german military casualties occurred on the Eastern Front. (That would be around 2.800.000 deads.)
 
I wonder if an accurate accounting exists for comparitive losses of combat aircraft, tanks and combat naval vessels. The Soviet Union went to such great lengths to cover their actual losses (especially from Operation Barbossa) that this may not be possible of course.
 
I think in recent years as Soviet archives and records have become more available in the West, the truth about Soviet casualties in Barbarossa is coming to light.

For instance; we now know that the massed tank battle of Prokorovka (as part of the Battle of Kursk) where an equal number of German and Soviet tanks were destroyed was a result of Soviet propaganda - in reality the Wehrmacht only suffered 20% of the Soviet tank losses. We also know more about Operation Mars, a huge defeat for the Red Army and Marshall Zhukov in particular that took place around about the same time as the latter battle for Stalingrad. Operation Mars was an even bigger material loss to the Red Army than Stalingrad was to the Wehrmacht.
 
Hi, these are Russian sources so can't vouch for authenticity. They appear to be fairly accurate but who can tell:

http://www.battlefield.ru/library/battles/battle12_04.html

As well as listing Operation Mars this site has a lot of different data regarding Soviet losses in WW2.

http://pkka.narod.ru/h-ind.htm

They are useful because they are coming from the Soviet perspective. They have lots of facts and figures but have to be weighed up from the location of their source.
 
To tell you the truth, I really only skimmed the book, It does drag on more then needed. I saw no bias though, although he did openly express his pity for many of the common fighting man, In particular the Russian penal units. Whether or not this is the "bias" you've heard, I dunno.
 
Doppleganger said:
Hi, these are Russian sources so can't vouch for authenticity. They appear to be fairly accurate but who can tell:

http://www.battlefield.ru/library/battles/battle12_04.html

As well as listing Operation Mars this site has a lot of different data regarding Soviet losses in WW2.

http://pkka.narod.ru/h-ind.htm

They are useful because they are coming from the Soviet perspective. They have lots of facts and figures but have to be weighed up from the location of their source.
Click to expand...

Already read the first link through previously. Second one seems to fit, as ridiculous as losing 83,500 tanks throughout the war seems. So now all we need is a site listing German tanks lost and we can make the comparison.
 
Bootboy82 said:
SU Civilians: 7.420.379
SU soldiers: 19.180.000
German overall military casualties: 3.500.000 (including Austrians and Sudeten Germans)

(Source: German Wikipedia.org)

In a tv documentary about the liberation of Europe, they said that nearly 80% of the german military casualties occurred on the Eastern Front. (That would be around 2.800.000 deads.)
Click to expand...

this is german source, so ... but never mind :)
just one thing, we know that german army during the war was in position to take more than 500 000 prisoners in one action sometimes, who knows how many millions in all. most of them did not survive the war. the same thing happened to them after the breakdown of wermacht. that could mean that german casualties could be bigger, in general.
 
The worst misrepresentation of the numbers has always been on the Soviet Unions part. Consider the "non-existence" of Operation Mars.

A reliable count on German casualties is certainly questionable, but consider something. Germany painstakingly kept count of how many people they murdered in their Death Camps. If they were accurate on that, it stands to reason that their records for battlefield casualties is very accurate. Also, over half of the Russian soldiers that died were worked to death in German forced labor camps. That tends to inflate the Soviet losses somewhat.

The link that Doppelganger provided ( http://pkka.narod.ru/h-ind.htm ) is a Russian source.
 
serbianpower said:
Bootboy82 said:
SU Civilians: 7.420.379
SU soldiers: 19.180.000
German overall military casualties: 3.500.000 (including Austrians and Sudeten Germans)

(Source: German Wikipedia.org)

In a tv documentary about the liberation of Europe, they said that nearly 80% of the german military casualties occurred on the Eastern Front. (That would be around 2.800.000 deads.)
Click to expand...

this is german source, so ... but never mind :)
just one thing, we know that german army during the war was in position to take more than 500 000 prisoners in one action sometimes, who knows how many millions in all. most of them did not survive the war. the same thing happened to them after the breakdown of wermacht. that could mean that german casualties could be bigger, in general.
Click to expand...

I doubt very much that Wehrmacht casualties were greater than Red Army casualties and have seen nothing that even suggests that was possible. The figure you mentioned appears to be the generally accepted casualty losses for the Wehrmacht and can find nothing that really disputes it.
 
Yup.....1 German on 20 Rooskies......
Germans are born heroes
Though US Army stoke them hard, and I would say that US is better, ESPECIALLY under Patton :D

Just what courage did it take to land on Normandy? huh ;)
 
1 important thing about Russian military casualties : about 5-10% only of Russian POW survived their fate, so if you consider the huge numbers of POW the germans made in the big 41 & 42 encirclements, you must admit that these casualty numbers don't reflect the sole field operations

And, yes Glanz is considered by some to be biaised, IIRC it's about the Soviet strategical awareness in the first 6 months of Barbarossa but I'm not sure (and not enough educated on the subjet to say whether he's biaised or not)
 
Silly Uncle Sam. Always putting in a plug for the good ol' USA whether its relevant or not. You must realize that Normandy is completely off-topic, right?

I don't know if I'd call the Germans heroes, as that depends on your perspective. Whitman and Barkman must have seemed a lot more like demons than heroes to the Soviet soldiers fighting against them.
 
PE_Sushi said:
1 important thing about Russian military casualties : about 5-10% only of Russian POW survived their fate, so if you consider the huge numbers of POW the germans made in the big 41 & 42 encirclements, you must admit that these casualty numbers don't reflect the sole field operations

And, yes Glanz is considered by some to be biaised, IIRC it's about the Soviet strategical awareness in the first 6 months of Barbarossa but I'm not sure (and not enough educated on the subjet to say whether he's biaised or not)
Click to expand...

But they were captured on the battlefield... ;)
____________________________
LOL... What can You do... :D But did I lie? :D
_
For the moment let's "Forget" they were nazis, and just concentrate on that how they fight.... From that perspective.....I would say they are hellova fighters... :)
 
I just meant that, if you compare with other countries' casualties, the result is biaised because way more of their POWs came back. With the same POW death rate than the russian's, other countries would have higher casualties numbers.
 
Doppleganger said:
serbianpower said:
Bootboy82 said:
SU Civilians: 7.420.379
SU soldiers: 19.180.000
German overall military casualties: 3.500.000 (including Austrians and Sudeten Germans)

(Source: German Wikipedia.org)

In a tv documentary about the liberation of Europe, they said that nearly 80% of the german military casualties occurred on the Eastern Front. (That would be around 2.800.000 deads.)
Click to expand...

this is german source, so ... but never mind :)
just one thing, we know that german army during the war was in position to take more than 500 000 prisoners in one action sometimes, who knows how many millions in all. most of them did not survive the war. the same thing happened to them after the breakdown of wermacht. that could mean that german casualties could be bigger, in general.
Click to expand...

I doubt very much that Wehrmacht casualties were greater than Red Army casualties and have seen nothing that even suggests that was possible. The figure you mentioned appears to be the generally accepted casualty losses for the Wehrmacht and can find nothing that really disputes it.
Click to expand...

read carefuly what I wrote boooy. I did not say that german casualties were greater than russian. of course that CCCP had bigger loses. what I am sayin is that there is no way to know for sure how many german solders died in gulags and working camps all over the russia after the war. if u would add this number to this 2800000 u would find that german losses were greater than u expected.
 
Uncle_Sam said:
Yup.....1 German on 20 Rooskies......
Germans are born heroes
Though US Army stoke them hard, and I would say that US is better, ESPECIALLY under Patton :D

Just what courage did it take to land on Normandy? huh ;)
Click to expand...

americans, new zealand, france, poland, great britain, canada, resistace and partisans all over the europe were fighting with 25 % of german force. it was much easier to stroke them hard then to russians, specialy in 1944. u better think before u say somehing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top