VVS loss reporting system (Damage/Destroyed/"loss")...

[Jack Sanders]

Originally Posted by kolya1

Hi,

Could you precise the title of the Khazanov and Gorbach's book, and if possible, what sources did they use, and do they separate combat and non combat casualties (which could explain part of the differences between sources, non-combat also including, if I remember well, worn out aircrafts) ?

The General Staff book was indeed most incomplete (although their (partial) data mostly corresponds to the figures you quote), but Krivosheev is usually a good source, and If you check in it, you have to take into account the Kursk defensive ops but also part of the Orel offensive, in which the losses were more than twice those of the defensive operation...

Honestly, the total figure given for the Kursk, Orel, and Belgorod-Kharkov operations (that is the german offensive and russian counterattacks) between 5/07 and 23/08, 1626 total combat losses seems quite possible, it gives an overclaim ratio of a bit more than 2:1 for the Germans which is not surprising for that time...

Is the total given by Khazanov and Gorbach much higher ?

Thanks,

Kolya.

Hello kolya,
The title of the book is "Aviation in the Battle for the Orel-Kursk Bulge". They use TsAMO documents. They do split causes of losses into combat and non-combat ones, but the combat losses alone are greater than those cited by Krivosheev.
As for Krivosheev, I do not trust a single figure in his book, as I have found and have been made aware by others of numerous inaccuracies in it, always erring on the side of lower Soviet losses.
Khazanov and Gorbach wrote only about the defensive operation, since a second book is to be published covering the offensive operation.
Regardless of what data you use, overall totals are not often conducive to calculating overclaim ratios. I would estimate the German ratio during the battle as 3:1 at best and tending towards 4 or even 5:1. You have to remember that AAA was responsible for a substantial number of losses.

Yours sincerely,

Jack Sanders