Biggest Misconceptions About World War II?

[Fliper]

Eastern front 4/1 kill per death ratio for Germans.

 

[Ben Schirmann]

Eastern front 4/1 kill per death ratio for Germans.

That's right, it was even more in certain timeframes (more than 7/1).

 

[VonMudra]

Actually, the Germans lost around 1 man killed for every 1.25 Soviets killed. The ratios were hardly far apart. In the first year or so of the war it was much greater, around 1/4-1/5, but the ratio closed up quickly as the Soviets became very operationally aware and, effectively, probably the best army in WW2 at operational maneuver and deep infiltration, as proved in Bagration when, with around 200,000 killed, they inflicted around 300,000 German deaths, plus many hundreds of thousands captured and wounded.

In the end, the idea that the Soviets suffered massive casualties in ratio from the Germans really only applies to the first year of the war or so, mostly because of their massive unit surrenders. As the war progressed and the Soviets got better and better at fighting and operational maneuver, their casualties dropped. But, to give the full casulty lists:

The Germans lost around 4.3 million KIA/MIA on the Eastern Front.
The German Allies (Finland, Romania, Hungary, ex-Soviet troops, Italy, etc), lost around 1 million.
So, total Axis losses, in the USSR, are around 5.3 million.

The Soviets meanwhile lost, in total, 7 million or so, roughly, KIA/MIA.

That puts you at a total Eastern Front casualty ratio of around 1.25/1 in terms of KIA/MIA. This is, however, not counting deaths in POW camps, of which around 30% of German POWs, or 374,000, died in the gulags between 1945 and 1955, and around 66-70% of Soviet POWs died, around 3.6 million between 1941 and 1945 in transit to or at the concentration and death camps.

 

[drummer93]

Actually, the Germans lost around 1 man killed for every 1.25 Soviets killed. The ratios were hardly far apart. In the first year or so of the war it was much greater, around 1/4-1/5, but the ratio closed up quickly as the Soviets became very operationally aware and, effectively, probably the best army in WW2 at operational maneuver and deep infiltration, as proved in Bagration when, with around 200,000 killed, they inflicted around 300,000 German deaths, plus many hundreds of thousands captured and wounded.

In the end, the idea that the Soviets suffered massive casualties in ratio from the Germans really only applies to the first year of the war or so, mostly because of their massive unit surrenders. As the war progressed and the Soviets got better and better at fighting and operational maneuver, their casualties dropped. But, to give the full casulty lists:

The Germans lost around 4.3 million KIA/MIA on the Eastern Front.
The German Allies (Finland, Romania, Hungary, ex-Soviet troops, Italy, etc), lost around 1 million.
So, total Axis losses, in the USSR, are around 5.3 million.

The Soviets meanwhile lost, in total, 7 million or so, roughly, KIA/MIA.

That puts you at a total Eastern Front casualty ratio of around 1.25/1 in terms of KIA/MIA. This is, however, not counting deaths in POW camps, of which around 30% of German POWs, or 374,000, died in the gulags between 1945 and 1955, and around 66-70% of Soviet POWs died, around 3.6 million between 1941 and 1945 in transit to or at the concentration and death camps.

I have another numbers about Bagration. But yes, the ratio was 1/1.3 in all the war

 

[Colonel__Klink]

Actually, the Germans lost around 1 man killed for every 1.25 Soviets killed. The ratios were hardly far apart. In the first year or so of the war it was much greater, around 1/4-1/5, but the ratio closed up quickly as the Soviets became very operationally aware and, effectively, probably the best army in WW2 at operational maneuver and deep infiltration, as proved in Bagration when, with around 200,000 killed, they inflicted around 300,000 German deaths, plus many hundreds of thousands captured and wounded.

In the end, the idea that the Soviets suffered massive casualties in ratio from the Germans really only applies to the first year of the war or so, mostly because of their massive unit surrenders. As the war progressed and the Soviets got better and better at fighting and operational maneuver, their casualties dropped. But, to give the full casulty lists:

The Germans lost around 4.3 million KIA/MIA on the Eastern Front.
The German Allies (Finland, Romania, Hungary, ex-Soviet troops, Italy, etc), lost around 1 million.
So, total Axis losses, in the USSR, are around 5.3 million.

The Soviets meanwhile lost, in total, 7 million or so, roughly, KIA/MIA.

That puts you at a total Eastern Front casualty ratio of around 1.25/1 in terms of KIA/MIA. This is, however, not counting deaths in POW camps, of which around 30% of German POWs, or 374,000, died in the gulags between 1945 and 1955, and around 66-70% of Soviet POWs died, around 3.6 million between 1941 and 1945 in transit to or at the concentration and death camps.

Is the operational maneuver your speaking of for the Red Army based around the doctrine of deep battle that Russia reportedly was trying to utilize at the start of the war?