German Tank Reliability

[tar]

Posted by a friend on a completely different forum, but perhaps of interest to people here:

From an article by Lt. Col. (ret) Roman Jarymowycz Phd, OMM, CD, former CO - Royal Canadian Hussars, and Dean of the Canadian Staff College:

In fact, the most successful tank killer of the Second World War was German engineering. The greatest wastage figures were not attributed to close air support or antitank fire, but crew destruction and abandonment of mechanically disabled tanks. Between 6th June and 7th August 1944, (a relatively sane period with time for regular maintenance) 27% of German tank casualties were due to mechanical failure; by 31 August (a period during which manoeuvre and redeployment was required due to relentless Allied pressure) the figure rose to an astounding 82% (34% abandoned; 48% destroyed by crew)! American surveys for German tank losses between 1944 to 1945 from “non enemy action” put the total figure at 43.8%.27 In comparison, British and Canadian armoured formations (4th Canadian Armoured Division, 1st Polish Armoured Division, 7th British Armoured Division, 11th British Armoured Division, The Guards Armoured Division, and 8th British Armoured Brigade) during the Normandy pursuit (average: 9.3 days; 317 miles) reported 22% tank casualties due to “mechanical failures”.

[Bastables]

Originally posted by tar:

Posted by a friend on a completely different forum, but perhaps of interest to people here:

From an article by Lt. Col. (ret) Roman Jarymowycz Phd, OMM, CD, former CO - Royal Canadian Hussars, and Dean of the Canadian Staff College:

In fact, the most successful tank killer of the Second World War was German engineering. The greatest wastage figures were not attributed to close air support or antitank fire, but crew destruction and abandonment of mechanically disabled tanks. Between 6th June and 7th August 1944, (a relatively sane period with time for regular maintenance) 27% of German tank casualties were due to mechanical failure; by 31 August (a period during which manoeuvre and redeployment was required due to relentless Allied pressure) the figure rose to an astounding 82% (34% abandoned; 48% destroyed by crew)! American surveys for German tank losses between 1944 to 1945 from ?non enemy action? put the total figure at 43.8%.27 In comparison, British and Canadian armoured formations (4th Canadian Armoured Division, 1st Polish Armoured Division, 7th British Armoured Division, 11th British Armoured Division, The Guards Armoured Division, and 8th British Armoured Brigade) during the Normandy pursuit (average: 9.3 days; 317 miles) reported 22% tank casualties due to ?mechanical failures?.

This seems fairly tendentious use of PRO documents as the good Col seems to believe that all abandoned and destroyed Tanks where the result of mechanical failure as opposed to the PRO findings that most ended up that way because of lack of fuel...

The lack of fuel because of combined factors of not enough stockpile in Normandy, poor resupply and then the completely debilitating effects of having ones supply lines blocked by encircling Allied armoured divs.

[Sargon70]

It seems that German tanks required a lot more maintenance than their allied counterparts.

On the other hand, a retreating army will always lose more tanks due to mechanical breakdowns than an advancing one. If you're retreating, there are many instances in which you can't wait for a mechanic because the enemy will find you first. In this case you have do destroy the vehicle or leave it intact to the enemy.

If you're in an advancing army, you can afford to wait for the mechanics as the frontline is not coming to you.

In addition to that and as already mentioned, allied air superiority made it much more difficult for the Germans to recover their vehicles than for the allies.