Cheating at Statistics 15: Machinations at Mius

Long time readers of my "Cheating at Statistics" series have no doubt noticed a certain trend with the kill claims of SS units: they are as humble as they are specific. Page after page tells you great tales with "dozens" of destroyed enemy tanks and "hundreds" of dead enemy soldiers in the great battle for "somewhere over there". George M. Nipe Jr's Decision in the Ukraine is proudly based on German sources (almost exclusively so, as he doesn't seem to be aware that any other kind exists), and therefore repeats the same tired old tropes: lots of enemy casualties, human waves, piles of corpses, but very few specifics. One of the few is contained in the description of a Soviet attack at hill 213.9 on July 18th during the battle for the Mius-Front.

"Columns of greasy black smoke from burning T-34 and T-70 tanks marked the limit of Soviet progress on the center ridge. At the end of the day, of the seventy-eight tanks that the army claimed had been knocked out, many were destroyed in front of the training area rallying point."

The rest of the paragraph is more vagueness about significant losses and piles of bodies, but we have the number: 78 tanks. Let's see who they came from.

There's hill 213.9 in the middle of the map, with the 5th Shock Army coming up from behind the Mius river to make a significant dent in the German defenses, going right over top of it on July 18th. The solid red line with a thinner dotted red line shows the Red Army's positions by the end of the day. Let's see what the army's tanks were up to.

"Losses of the army (less 221st Rifle Division) consist of: up to 600 men killed and up to 1750 men wounded. Knocked out: 4 cannons, 4 mortars, 20 machineguns, 4 cars. Lost on July 17th and July 18th: 47 tanks, of those 11 KV, 21 T-34, 3 T-70, 12 T-60. Out of all tanks lost, 8 burned, 3 need capital repairs, 7 need medium repairs, the rest (29) need light repairs."

Luckily, there is also a list of losses for July 17th alone: 8 KVs, 11 T-34s, 2 T-60s, and 2 T-70s, which means the tanks lost on July 18th alone were:

• 3 KVs
• 10 T-34s
• 10 T-60s
• 1 T-70

for a total of 24 tanks, less than a third of what the Germans claimed they knocked out. The missing KVs and T-60s in German records also warrant a mention, but considering that Nipe brings up such phantoms as SU-152s on T-34 chassis and Soviet 172 mm guns, I wouldn't look at German tank identification abilities too closely.

Medium Tank T1E1: Britain's Heir

The American tank building school began with building tanks based on foreign designs. For example, the first real success of American builders was based on the Renault FT. The reworked version of the tank, M1916 6-t Light Tank, became the main vehicle for American tank units for fifteen years. A foreign design was also the base of the first American medium tank accepted for service: the Medium Tank T1E1.

Banner of Victory

"To the Military Council of the 3rd Shock Army

By my personal orders, the Red Banner that was raised over the Reichstag on April 30th, 1945 by the 150th Rifle Division has been removed. Instead, I ordered that a large red banner be installed.

The banner raised over the Reichstag on April 30th, 1945, was put in storage. I ask for a petition to Marshal of the Soviet Union comrade Zhukov to form a delegation from the 1st Belorussian Front, 3rd Shock Army, and 79th Rifle Corps to personally present the banner of victory, in the Kremlin or any other location, to our great chief, the favoured Marshal comrade Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin.

Commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, Major-General Perevertkin
Chief of Staff of the 79th Rifle Corps, Colonel Letunov
14:00, May 9th, 1945"

Via kris-reid

ZiS-3 Trials

"To the Chair of the Committee of Defense, comrade I.V. Stalin

According to your instructions, proving grounds trials of the 76 mm ZiS-3 divisional gun designed by factory #92 were performed at the GAU ANIOP from January 15th to February 5th, 1942.

The commission which performed the trials gave the following conclusions.

Tractor Costs

"Attachment #1
Shipments for agreement #1878, June __ 1943

Item	Shipments in 1943			Shipments by month
	Amt	Cost	Total	Month	Amount	Total
2nd quarter
Ya-11 Artillery Tractor	30	60,000	1,800,000	June	30	1,800,000
Maintenance parts and tools	3	20,000	60,000	June	3	60,000
Repair parts and tools	1	60,000	60,000	June	1	60,000
Total for 2nd quarter			1,920,000			1,920,000
3rd quarter
Ya-11 Artillery Tractor	310	60,000	18,600,000	July	60	3,600,000
				August	100	6,000,000
				Sept.	150	9,000,000
Maintenance parts and tools	31	20,000	620,000	July	6	120,000
				August	10	200,000
				Sept.	15	300,000
Repair parts and tools	10.3	60,000	618,000	July	2	120,000
				August	3.3	198,000
				Sept.	5	300,000
Total for 3rd quarter			19,838,000			19,838,000
4th quarter
Ya-11 Artillery Tractor	650	60,000	39,000,000	October	200	12,000,000
				Nov.	200	12,000,000
				Dec.	250	15,000,000
Maintenance parts and tools	65	20,000	1,300,000	October	20	400,000
				Nov.	20	400,000
				Dec.	25	500,000
Repair parts and tools	22	60,000	1,320,000	October	6.7	402,000
				Nov.	6.7	402,000
				Dec.	8.6	516,000
Total for 4th quarter			41,620,000			41,620,000
Total for 1943			63,378,000			63,378,000

CAMD RF 81-12086-35

How to Paint Camo Spots

Just like the Americans, the Red Army had very specific instructions about how to paint camouflage patterns on tanks, down to directions on painting individual spots. The spots had to have a wiggly outline and vary in shape and size in order to disrupt the outline of the vehicle by concealing distinctive features such as corners or straight lines. Spots should not be painted in parallel with any edges. Similarly shaped spots of the same colour should not be positioned symmetrically.

Renault R 35 in German Service

The most numerous tank in French service in 1940, the Renault R 35, was naturally the most numerous tank among the Wehrmacht's trophies. Many tanks fell into German hands either completely intact or damaged so superficially that they could quickly be repaired. In total, the Germans captured 800-840 Renault R 35 tanks, an impressive number, but the name change to Panzerkampfwagen 35R 731(f) didn't add anything to the tank's qualities. The tank's career with its new masters was long, but complicated: it served as an SPG, an engineering vehicle, a tractor, and a mobile crane.

Renault R 35: More for Less

French light tank development after WWI opted to continue modernizing the Renault FT. After long experiments that resulted in the Renault NC, infantry command decided to develop a tank that weighed 12 tons. This project resulted in the 14 ton Renault D1, whose size and mass was closer to a medium tank. The D1 was pursued by technical problems, and it was not very numerous: compared to the 3,500 Renault FTs that it was supposed to replace, 160 of these tanks were a drop in the sea. French commanders thought long and hard, and the result was the new Renault R 35 tank which played an important role in the defeat of France in the summer of 1940.

World of Tanks History Section: Maloyaroslavl Line

The Wehrmacht's pincer closed around Vyazma on October 7th, 1941. Soldiers of the West and Reserve Fronts, about 600,000 men, were trapped in side. On the next day, Commander-in-Chief I. Stalin sent a telegram to Lieutenant-General M. Lukin, the commander of the surrounded forces. It began with the words "If you don't break through, I will have nothing and no one to defend Moscow. I repeat: nothing and no one!"

The chief wasn't joking. A new line of defense had to be built between the Germans and Moscow after the West and Reserve Fronts fell. This cost time, time that the enemy wasn't about to donate. Precious days and hours were won in fierce battles. The battle for the Maloyaroslavl fortified region (37th UR) was one of them.

7.5 cm Sprenggranate 34

Much talk is dedicated to various armour piercing munitions, but high explosive shells are no less important for cannons. Let's take a look at the data sheet for high explosive ammunition of a 7.5 cm KwK 40 L/43 gun.

"Spreng-Granate 34. Vo = 550 m/s

Without delay (o.V.): use against strongpoints, AT guns and riflemen, masses of targets, against tanks use only with impact fuse.
With delay: (m.V.): use against targets behind cover, or, as an exception, against live targets with ricochet.

Resilient Driver

"Nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Guards Senior Sergeant Shilov, Grigoriy Iosifovich, mechanic-driver of a T-34 tank from the 316th Tank Battalion, 30th Tank Brigade

With his tank, comrade Shilov fought on the Voronezh Front in 1943 for Rossosh, Chuguyev, Kharkov, Valki, and dozens of other settlements. In battle for Mikhailovka, Sofievka, Rossosh, Karpenkovo, Varvarovka, Osadchiy, Ternovaya, Lizogubovka, Malinovka, Chuguyev, Kharkov, Valki, New and Old Olkhovatka, his tank destroyed:

• Anti-tank guns: 7
• Heavy guns: 2
• SPGs: 3
• Cars with ammunition and cargo: 5
• Motorcycles with sidecars: 10
• Soldiers and officers: 530

T-43 Criticism

"Factory #183 designed and is currently producing an experimental prototype of the T-43 tank. The T-43 tank is designed based on the T-34 tank with the goal of obtaining a better armoured vehicle while keeping as many parts in common as possible.

The main drawbacks of the T-43 include:

Red Army Infantry Manual on Tanks

Naturally, tanks are not the primary topic of infantry manuals, but these excerpts from the 1935 Red Armyman's handbook give you a good idea of how the common soldier in the USSR was expected to react to their appearance on the battlefield.

3.7 cm Pak: Life of the Doorknocker

When one thinks of the German blitzkrieg and its weapons, one first thinks of tanks and airplanes. Meanwhile, the 3.7 cm Pak anti-tank gun could very well be one of the symbols of the early war. First used with great success in Spain, forcing its enemies to develop tanks with shell-proof armour, it ended up as a useless "doorknocker" against T-34 and KV tanks. What is the history of this little cannon?

7TP: Polish Vickers

Polish armoured forces were pitted against the Panzerwaffe, one of the main instruments of German strategy. Even though battles in September of 1939 showed that the light 7TP tanks could resist German tanks on a technical level, but the numerical difference left no chances for Poland.

Beefy T-28

Soviet T-28 and T-35 tanks catch a lot of flak for being big, heavy, and not particularly well armoured in the era where anti-tank cannons became very common. German pre-war intelligence identifies the T-28 and T-35 as vulnerable to 37 mm guns from 450 meters, and yet the 94th Anti-tank Squadron of the XXXXIX Mountain Corps had a different experience. In a report titled "experience of an anti-tank unit in the East" they write:

"In one case, we managed to impede the attack of a heavy Russian tank "T-28" (or "T-35") by disabling its turret rotation mechanism. Shooting at the front or sides of the turret with PzGr 39 and PzGr 40 shells out of 37 mm guns at a range of 250 m had no effect."

CAMD RF 500-12480-145

On German Losses

"There is confusion regarding the alleged precision... I'm not going to speak for the Western Allies, that's not my topic, but I had to work with German losses. And believe me, the mess with their counting of losses is much greater than ours. We had a very specific Form #8, "Report on Losses", everyone had to fill it out, if it had to be revised then another form would be submitted. The Germans had nothing like this. As for the German data, you can take a look at just one period, with static positions, let's say Sevastopol. Here's a report by the army Senior Quartermaster. Compare it to the list of names of killed officers. They counted officers separately and NCOs and soldiers separately. The difference in numbers can be as high as 50%, one and a half times higher when you count them by name.
...
Overall, if you take 1944 and count the losses in Bagration, it's a horrible mess. Reports on losses get delayed until the fall. That same 17th Army in Crimea that was defeated on the peninsula only reports its losses several weeks later. They were only counted several weeks later. If we take the 10-day report of the medical service for the army, the number of losses in Crimea are almost an order of magnitude less than the losses that were actually taken and reported on later. This precision is greatly exaggerated. It's the opposite: the Germans were more interested in what they had now, and the losses they sustained, well, the numbers were often counted very poorly. Paulus' army doctor at Stalingrad writes reports, compare it with the 10-day reports, the difference is huge, 20%. Where it comes from, it's hard to say, but it's there a lot. The lower the level, the deeper you have to dig to discover precise numbers."

Aleksei Isayev, Battle for Moscow

T-60 Amour QA

"To the director of the Vyksa "DRO" factory, comrade Volkov
CC: GABTU Military Representative at the "DRO" factory, Military Engineer 2nd Grade comrade Zimin
CC: Military Machinebuilding Department

Reply to 5/109s

The list of parts to be tested by shooting and parts not to be tested by shooting are attached to technical requirements #060 TU-1 (wartime conditions for producing "060" T-70 hulls) sent to your address. Use these requirements as a benchmark. The conditions for testing plates (type of bullet, number of hits, range) are specified in the wartime requirements for tank armour, which are also present at your factory.

Test 10% of front, side, and rear hull plates and turrets according to the military representative's orders.

Deputy GABTU BTU Chief, Military Engineer 1st Grade, Alymov
GABTU BTU Military Commissar [illegible]"

CAMD RF 38-11355-20

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union

"Award Order

1. Name: Hohryakov, Semyon Vasilyevich
2. Title: Guards Major
3. Position: Commander of the 209th Tank Battalion, 54th Guards Tank Briade, 7th Guards Tank Corps, 3rd Guards Tank Army
   is nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

MT-25: The Last Convertible Drive

Difficult battles of the Soviet-German front in 1941-1942 negated the advantages of light tanks. Equipped with relatively weak weapons and mostly bulletproof armour, light tanks as a class were becoming obsolete. The Germans were the first to see the end of the pre-war concept of a light tank, ceasing production in 1942. In the USSR, engineers were still trying to boost the combat performance of the T-70. The result of this work was the T-80 tank, but it came too late.

Meanwhile, proposals for radically new light tanks arrived. A proposal for the MT-25 tank was sent by Chelyabinsk engineers to Stalin on February 24th, 1943. Unlike many proposals, this one contained interesting ideas and was well thought out, and piqued the interest of the Main Armoured Directorate. What were these ideas, and why was the tank never built?

World of Tanks History Section: Battle for Dompaire

In the late summer and early fall of 1944, F. Leclerc's 2nd Armoured Division was confidently leading the Allied offensive in Lorraine. Colonel Paul de Langlade was the leader among leaders. His decisive actions threatened German units south of Nancy with encirclement.

The Germans decided to deliver a counterattack to correct matters. Now de Langlade, having scorned his enemy, had to deal with the consequences of his success.

s.Pz.B. 41 Extras

Here are two more diagrams to accompany the s.Pz.B. 41 article:

Damper

High explosive (left) and armour piercing (right) ammunition.

Object 237's First Steps

"Volume of trials

After assembly, the tank was broken in (before a turret was installed) over a distance of 23 kilometers.

The breaking in occurred at all gears:

• 2 km in first gear
• 3 km in second gear
• 4 km in third gear
• 5 km in fourth gear
• 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th gears were broken in over a combined distance of 9 km

After transport from factory #100 to factory #200, the Kirov factory, and back, the tank was broken in over a distance of 12 km.

After final tuning of mechanisms, the tank was sent to factory mobility trials. Overall, during factory trials, the tank traveled 630 km, of those 571 km (over three rounds) were in regular mode and 59 were in breaking in mode.

Heroic IS-85 Commander

"Award Order

1. Name: Prikhodtsev, Vasiliy Ivanovich
2. Rank: Guards Lieutenant
3. Position: Tank commander, 1st Independent Guards Tank Regiment of the Supreme Command Reserve
   is nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

A German View of Teploye: Artillery

Part 1: Tanks

" 2. Tactical artillery experience

1. Enemy artillery

Unlike previous experience, this time we could not observe Russian fire control. The Russians fired precisely. A shift towards larger calibers, 122 mm and 152 mm, was noticed. Enemy action against our artillery was insufficient. If the Russians discovered our battery, they fired too few shells to destroy it. On the other hand, in many cases, the concentrated fire of mortars, light and medium batteries, and rocket artillery could weaken the advance of our motorized infantry at its initial positions and during the attack that it lacked the strength for a penetration.

Toldi: The Hungarian Light Knight

Sometimes fairly good designs of military hardware don't reach their true potential because they appeared in the wrong time or in the wrong place. Light tanks, widely in use on all theaters of WWII, disappeared rather quickly from the Eastern Front, freeing up the space for their heavier brothers. The Hungarian Toldi tank, the first mass produced tank for the country, was one of them.