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Why the huge disparity between Soviet and German losses on the Eastern front?

B-24J

One of the Regulars
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Not mentioned yet was that Germany went to "Total War" in early 1943. While too late to have any hope of winning the war, this move did produce more war materiel to throw at their enemies in the second half of the conflict.

And, as Smithy mentioned earlier, the German weaponry was better by this time. The infantry anti-tank capabilities and automatic weapons alone would cause a disparity in enemy losses.

Also, a factor in losses are the "odds". The greater the odds an attacker has, the greater the will be the defenders losses and vice versa. However, many factors go into figuring the odds - not just the number of troops and tanks. A common example is a Tiger I in the bocage of Normandy shooting up Sherman tanks. The Soviets had to overcome similar circumstances at times. At least they had T-34s

For the record, The U.S. went to Total War in 1942 and Great Britain was on rationing years before that. I think it's good for the civilians to "Do their bit".

John
 

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