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  GermanyUSSRGermany USSRRifles1,359.0002,421,0001,370,0004,049,000Machine guns96,000149,000117,000356,000Artillery3,80041,00041,000128,000Tanks + self-propelled guns8,4006,6006,20024,700Combat aircraft 12,40011,60021,700     

German and Soviet war production. 1942–1944 (thousands of units)

 1942 1943 1944  GermanyUSSRGermanyUSSRGermanyUSSRRIfles + submachine guns1,6024,6192,5094,8013,0853,006Machine guns117356263458509439Artillery4112874130148122Tanks + self-propelled guns62411241829Combat aircraft122219303433

Soviet tank and self-propelled gun losses

 19411942194319441945Tanks and self-propelled guns available28,20035,70047,90059,10048,900Losses     Heavy tanks9001,2001,300900900Medium tanks2,3006,60014,70013,8007,500Light tanks17,3007,2006,4002,300300Self-propelled guns01001,1006,8005,000

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.

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