You are right.Yoozername wrote: ↑20 Dec 2018, 22:20This sort of information just gives the combat power of the unit in my opinion. There is too much missing information, and since the devil is in the details, it is hard to really make any conclusions. From memory, the unit had just got back from Italy, the Panther tanks were relatively new, but the Panzer IVs and Tigers might be a mix of old and new? Given the early production issues with Panthers, there could be reasons based on that. It would be most interesting to know the cycle of runners becoming short or long term repair, the reason(s), and the flow the other way from repair to runners. It would be nice to have the Dec 5-17 numbers.Ulater wrote: ↑20 Dec 2018, 20:12LSSAH at the end of 1943, ready/short term repair/long term repair/all. I believe there also was a report from November of the Panther abteilung of LSSAH action around Zhitomir, where they lost 65% of servicable vehicles in one week of action mostly to mechanical breakdowns.
30 November - Pz III - 3/1/2/6, Pz IV - 24/45/7/76, Panther – 15/53/12/80, Tiger – 2/14/9/25
1 December - Pz III - 4/1/1/6, Pz IV - 24/43/7/74, Panther – 15/53/12/80, Tiger – 2/14/9/25
2 December - Pz III - 3/2/1/6, Pz IV - 24/45/6/75, Panther – 23/46/11/80, Tiger – 3/13/9/25
3 December - Pz III - 3/2/1/6, Pz IV - 24/43/7/74, Panther – 29/40/11/80, Tiger – 3/13/9/25
4 December - Pz III - 4/1/-/5, Pz IV - 30/39/5/74, Panther – 28/41/11/80, Tiger – 4/12/9/25
18 December - Pz III - 2/2/1/5, Pz IV - 33/24/9/66, Panther – 12/35/28/75, Tiger – 7/8/9/24
19 December - Pz III - 2/2/1/5, Pz IV - 18/39/9/66, Panther – 12/35/28/75, Tiger – 5/10/9/24
20 December - Pz III - 2/3/-/5, Pz IV - 24/33/7/64, Panther – 8/39/28/75, Tiger – 3/11/10/24
21 December - Pz III - 1/3/1/5, Pz IV - 6/48/9/63, Panther – 4/43/28/75, Tiger – 2/12/10/24
22 December - Pz III - -/4/1/5, Pz IV - 12/42/9/63, Panther – 9/38/28/75, Tiger – 2/12/10/24
23 December - Pz III - -/4/1/5, Pz IV - 16/38/9/63, Panther – 7/40/28/75, Tiger – 3/11/10/24
One can say that actual write-offs and destructions may be low on the Tigers and Panthers, but it is also true that Panzer IV is the majority tank Dec 23...Panthers do have a good number in short term repair, but so do the Panzer IV...Panzer IV have less long term repair and Panther have over 1/3! Basically, these guys are on the disabled list and questionable.
I think discussions like these, especially when mixing data from the Western and Eastern front, especially given the distances concerned, and air power considerations, just ends up going nowhere...and sometimes worse, blurry photos start popping up...
Considering that Western front was mainly a developed infrastructure compared to the east, and Normandy was a very small theatre compared to the extent of Operation Bagration for example, taking examples of this from Normandy is not really constructive or a good evidence, because that kind of is "the best case scenario" for tank realibility.
I dont think that making comparison with a tank from earlier decade, which had to sacrifice manueverability (and reliability) for 30 mm addon armor to resist british guns in 1942 could say anything good about the Panther.
And we would also need all the missing info to go with those numbers - combat action the unit participated in, causes for repair, distances traveled on the map and so on.