I wonder if the repair teams for German tanks constantly have bitchfits at totaled Pz IV's.
Seems like the situation was kinda binary to me; there was a period where Germany pushed forward with such great strides that there probably wasn't much heavy work for the salvage and repair crews to do. Then they were smashed backwards with such force that they didn't seem to get much of a chance to rescue hulls, in the end retreating with such vigor that minorly crippled tanks were scuttled. Though that just comes from my overall "knowledge" of the ordeal; I've never looked into German salvage rates and tactics past the disputed Bergetiger. Never stop hearing about how the Americans salvaged their tin cans on the roll, though.
The Germans were very good at salvaging their damaged tanks, at least until they got pushed back so fast, it became almost impossible. During the desert war, the germans would go out into no mans land at night with halftracks and try to rescue whatever tanks they could, so that they could at least used them as spare parts.
Though that just comes from my overall "knowledge" of the ordeal; I've never looked into German salvage rates and tactics past the disputed Bergetiger. Never stop hearing about how the Americans salvaged their tin cans on the roll, though.
The Germans tended to use a lot of creative accounting with their damage reports. Basically they'd only report losses for tanks that were totally destroyed or damaged beyond recovery/repair and even then a fair number of those would be listed as being in "long term repair" or "destroyed by crew" as opposed to enemy action, additionally some of these losses would not be reported until the end of the month.
For example, in March of 1944 the Soviet 4th Tank Army claimed around 49 Tiger tanks destroyed/captured, German units (SPz. Abt 503, 507, and 509) in the area only report around 19 Tigers lost... until the end of the month when they report 24 losses, 21 being "destroyed by crew."
German tanks had a higher likelihood of returning to the front after being damaged:
From 1 October 1943 to 31 January 1944, the German tank maintenance companies on all fronts repaired 8,702 tanks and assault guns. Another 453 were repaired in the zone of interior. During the same period 2,945 were permanently lost. This means that only one quarter of all tanks put out of action were actually lost. During offensive operations the percentage of permanently lost was even lower. These figures can be compared with another example from the Battle of Kursk. The Soviet 2nd Tank Army lost 30.7 per cent of its tanks 6-14 July, while a further 16.7 per cent were put out of action but later repaired. This means that nearly two out of three disabled tanks never returned to service, a much higher percentage than the German example given above. During offensive operations the percentage of permanently destroyed tanks was lower, but higher than for German offensive operations.
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