Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1943-1945: Red Steamroller

Yet Soviet armoured tactics were undermined throughout the war by the lack of training provided to Soviet tankers in comparison to their opponents. In 1945, some Guards tank units were afforded special gunnery training, but for most of the war Soviet tankers went into battle with inadequate gunnery training and poor communications due to the limited number of radios. These limitations – which could have been mitigated – gave an enormous advantage to German tankers and help to explain many of the lop-sided kill ratios. Yet Stalin and his Kremlin cronies were not interested in improving military training since they regarded this as a step toward professionalism and elitism, which was dangerous for the authority of the party. Instead, Stalin accepted heavy losses as the price of victory and only cared about losses when it affected mission outcomes. Nevertheless, the Red Army eventually developed a veteran armoured force by 1945 that was capable of achieving any mission assigned and had surpassed the capabilities of the German Panzer-Divisionen even in their prime.

Appendix I Rank Table

Appendix II Armour Order of Battle, 1 July 1943

German

Heeresgruppe Nord (Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler)

16.Armee (Generalfeldmarschall Ernst Busch)

○ 18.Panzer-Grenadier-Division (Generalleutnant Werner von Erdmannsdorff)

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 184

○ 18.Armee (Generaloberst Georg Lindemann)

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 226

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 912

○ schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502

Heeresgruppe Mitte (Generalfeldmarschall Günther von Kluge)

3.Panzerarmee (Generaloberst Georg-Hans Reinhardt)

• XXXXIII Armeekorps (General der Infanterie Karl von Oven)

○ 20.Panzer-Grenadier Division (Generalmajor Georg Jauer)

• Army Reserves:

○ 8.Panzer-Division (Generalmajor Sebastian Fichtner)¹

4. Armee (Generaloberst Hans von Salmuth)

• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 270

• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 667

2.Armee (Generaloberst Walter Weiss)

9.Armee (Generaloberst Walther Model)

XLVI Panzer-Korps (General der Infanterie Hans Zorn)

• 7.Infanterie-Division (Generalleutnant Fritz-Georg von Rappard)

○ 2./Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 909

• 31.Infanterie-Division (Generalleutnant Friedrich Hoβbach)

○ 1.,3/Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 909

• 258.Infanterie-Division (Generalleutnant Hanskurt Höcker)

○ 6./Panzer-Regiment 29 [Pz IV]

○ 2./Panzerjäger-Abteilung 2 [Marder]

XXXXI Panzer-Korps (General der Panzertruppen Josef Harpe)

• 18.Panzer-Division (Generalmajor Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben)

• 86.Infanterie-Division (Generalleutnant Helmuth Weidling)

○ schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 654 [Ferdinand]

○ Panzerkompanie (Fkl) 313

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 177

• 292.Infanterie-Division (Generalleutnant Wolfgang von Kluge) WIA 20 July

○ schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung 653 [Ferdinand]

○ Panzerkompanie (Fkl) 314

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 244

• schwere Panzerjäger Regiment 656:

○ Sturm-Panzer-Abteilung 216 [Sturmpanzer]

XXXXVII Panzer-Korps (General der Panzertruppen Joachim Lemelsen)

• 2.Panzer-Division (Generalleutnant Vollrath Lübbe)

• 9.Panzer-Division (Generalleutnant Walter Scheller)

• 20.Panzer-Division (Generalmajor Mortimer von Kessel)

• 6.Infanterie-Division (Generalleutnant Horst Groβmann)

○ 1.,2./schwere Panzer-Abteilung 505

○ Panzerkompanie (Fkl) 312 (Leutnant Nolte)

• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 245

• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 904

XXIII Armeekorps (General der Infanterie Johannes Frießner)

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 185

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 189

Group Esebeck (9.Armee Reserve):

• 4.Panzer-Division (Generalleutnant Dietrich von Saucken)

• 12.Panzer-Division (Generalmajor Erpo Freiherr von Bodenhausen)

• 10.Panzer-Grenadier-Division (Generalleutnant August Schmidt)

2.Panzerarmee (General der Infanterie Heinrich Clößner)

LIII Armeekorps (Generalleutnant Friedrich Gollwitzer)

• 25.Panzer-Grenadier-Division (Generalleutnant Anton Grasser)

• 5.Panzer-Division (Generalmajor Ernst Felix Fäckenstedt)

• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 202

• Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 904

Heeresgruppe Süd (Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein)

4.Panzerarmee (Generaloberst Hermann Hoth)

• XLVIII Panzerkorps (General der Panzertruppen Otto von Knobelsdorff)²

○ 3.Panzer-Division (Generalleutnant Franz Westhoven)

○ 11.Panzer-Division (Generalmajor Johann Mickl)

○ Panzer-Grenadier Division Groβdeutschland (Generalleutnant Walter Hörnlein)

○ 10.Panzer Brigade (Oberst Arnold Hans Albert Burmeister) Oberst Karl Decker

▪ Panzer-Regiment 39 (Major Meinrad von Lauchert)

• Panzer-Abteilung 51

• Panzer-Abteilung 52

○ Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 911

• II.SS-Panzerkorps (General der Waffen-SS Paul Hausser)

○ 1.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Sepp Dietrich)

○ 2.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich (SS-Gruppenführer Walter Krüger)