Criticism by Nigel Askey of the ‘Myth of German superiority on the WW2 Eastern Front’

Interesting essay by Nigel Askey regarding German and Soviet combat performance in the Eastern Front in WWII.

My opinion on this matter is given in the following comparisons:

Strength and loss data Eastern Front – part 1

Tank strength and losses – Eastern Front

Eastern Front Aircraft Strength and Losses 1941-45

WWII Myths - T-34 Best Tank of the war

Compromise of Soviet codes in WWII

Also note the following statements by Christopher Lawrence in ‘War by Numbers: Understanding Conventional Combat‘, p48:

‘We conclude from the Kursk comparison that the Germans had a clear advantage in combat capability that showed itself in both offensive and defensive casualty effectiveness and mission accomplishment. The difference appears to be a factor of 3. This difference appears in the middle of 1943, after the Soviet Army had two years of wartime experience, was using experienced units, and had time to rest, train, and rebuild before the German offensive. Yet there was still a very clear performance difference between these armies’.

and in page 50:

‘One cannot help but note that the relative combat performance of the Israelis and the Arabs in 1956-73 was similar in disparity to that between the Germans and the Soviets in 1943’.

Understandably the truth hurts…

Additional information: Comments on “Deutsche Militärische Verluste” by Rüdiger Overmans