but if reinforcements are indeed large
I don't think reinforcements were large during such a short period (13 - 25 September or 1 October).
Usually you reinforce a unit after withdrawing it from the frontline when it's no longer capable of combats.
Michate wrote:Until the end of 1944, a little over 1 million German soldiers were killed in action on Eastern front, while during 1945, a little over half a million were killed in action on both eastern and western front. Additionally several hundred thousand smaller axis army soldiers killed in action.
Michate, even reported losses were higher than you claim.
Heeresarzt reported on the Eastern Front from 22.06.1941 to 31.12.1944:
890,556 KIA
1,110,427 MIA
3,459,568 WIA (is this number close to correct?)
Total number of KIA and MIA = 2,000,983.
This doesn't include losses of SS, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine.
But yet "Wehrmacht Zentralstatistik" reported (Gesamtausfälle der Wehrmacht) on the Eastern Front until 30.11.1944:
1,419,728 dead (this also includes non-combat losses but it was a very small percentage*)
997,050 MIA
Total number of Heer dead + MIA = 2,416,778.
The same report (which brokes down losses by campaign) gives total Heer losses as:
1,710,869 dead
1,540,795 MIA
Total number of Heer dead and MIA = 3,251,664.
* Heer losses on all fronts according to a similar report from 30.11.1944 (which brokes down losses by type):
1,540,829 MIA (including 242,100 confirmed POWs)
And total reported Heer deaths - 1,709,739 *
This includes:
1,554,066 KIA or DOW
147,640 DOS, DIA, Suicides
7,810 Executed
223 Unknown cause
So as you can see
91% of all reported deaths of Heer were combat deaths (either KIA or DOW).
Thus we can assume that numbers from this report include:
1,419,728 (of whom up to ca. 127,800 were non-combat deaths, while ca. 1,292,000 were combat deaths).
Which gives us:
1,292,000 KIA or DOW
997,050 MIA
Total = 2,289,050.
And now let's check Soviet reported POW figures, which are given here in this chart:
http://www.dws.org.pl/viewtopic.php?f=2 ... 5#p1470891
Small legend for this chart:
The chart provides figures for POWs from German, Romanian, Hungarian, Italian and Finnish armies who rolled over POW camps of Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs during the Great Patriotic War.
Thus all POWs who entered these POW camps are included in the report.
Number of POWs inside these camps and changes:
przybyło = increased / came / entered (depends how you want to translate "przybyło")
ubyło = decreased
w tym zmarło = of them died
stan na = number on
Razem = total
A. Niemiecka = German Army
w tym Austriacy = of them Austrians
A. Rumuńska = Romanian Army
A. Węgierska = Hungarian Army
A. Włoska = Italian Army
A. Fińska = Finnish Army
Hiszpanie = Spaniards
So as you can see, the following number of POWs from the German Army was reported in POW camps:
1941 - 9,147
1942 - 79,004
1943 - 102,196
1944 - 473,418
In total until the end of 1944: 663,765.
While in the same period (even shorter - without December 1944) German Heer alone reported 997,050 MIA.
This indicates, that some 333,285 of the reported MIA, were in fact also deaths (most probably battle deaths).
This gives us 1,625,285+ Heer reported battle deaths (KIA, DOW, MIA presumed dead) until 30.11.1944.
And this does not include Waffen SS, Luftwaffe ground troops, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and others.
Now take into consideration the fact that reported casualties are usually to some extent incomplete.
As R. Overmans shows (however I don't say that I support everything what he claims).