Where did all the Soviet tank hulls go?

[pintere]

This is an issue I've had on my mind for a while.

The Soviets lost thousands of tanks in 1941 during the German advances in Barbarossa. From what I understand a great deal of these losses were due to tanks breaking down or otherwise immobilized and then being overrun by the advancing forces, a phenomena that we also see in the German attack on France in 1940 and the closing of the Falaise pocket.

My question is why there doesn't seem to have been a major effort by the Germans to utilize these abandoned tanks. They did so with French tanks and other tracked vehicles extensively, so what's the deal here? The Soviets had about 5,000 BT-7s and 7,500 T-26s alone at the start of Barbarossa and I believe most were lost in Barbarossa. Even if the tanks themselves were judged too light for frontline use why were they not sent to fight partisans or, even better, stripped of their turrets and converted to tank destroyers?

Surely there must be some explanation.

[Dann Falk]

Good question...but my best guess is they were used as raw material, as in shipped back to Germany and melted down.

[Knouterer]

It is indeed estimated that by December 1941 there were at least 10,000 Soviet tanks behind German lines, many completely wrecked but many others would have been recoverable. However, German recovery units were not numerous (compared to the US Army later in the war for exmple) and had only a limited number of heavy towing vehicles (18-ton halftracks with 22-ton trailers), and they had trouble enough recovering and repairing German tanks.
By the spring, tanks that had been standing around with their hatches open were generally beyond recovery and only usable as scrap.

[NagaSadow]

Hello!

The were used in fighting partisans from late 1941 onwards. Many security divisions and regiments raised platoons (later extended to companies). Additionally the German police raised more than a dozen tank companies equipped with captured tanks during the war. During 1941/42 the biggest obstacles were the lack of trained personal to operate the tanks and the terrible condition of many of the captured Soviet tanks.

[pintere]

Hello!

The were used in fighting partisans from late 1941 onwards. Many security divisions and regiments raised platoons (later extended to companies). Additionally the German police raised more than a dozen tank companies equipped with captured tanks during the war. During 1941/42 the biggest obstacles were the lack of trained personal to operate the tanks and the terrible condition of many of the captured Soviet tanks.

Right, but a dozen companies at about 50 tanks each is 1200. Assuming all of them were of Soviet build (unlikely) and at full strength, it still seems a bit curious that of all the Soviet tanks the Germans overran that less than 10% could be fixed and put into the field.

[Paul Lakowski]

Lack of spare parts fuel & ammo to keep them running for any length of time. There was reportedly a tank factory in Kiew that was captured and put into use through 1943. Even with the steady stream of captured tanks, it would be doubtful the Wehrmacht could keep more than 300-500 operational at any time.

What might be better would be to warehouse the 10,000 captured tank turrets each with some ammo for rapid instillation into field fortifications. This was also true of the tens of thousands of captured artillery pieces . Then the hundreds of tank chassis can be used as armored recovery vehicles and munitions schleppers....or use them as remote control targets for live fire exercises to better train army how to deal with the threat.

[Art]

There was reportedly a tank factory in Kiew that was captured and put into use through 1943.

Germans captured the Kharkov locomotive factory in 1941 (which produced T-34s) and recaptured it again in March 1943. It was never put into operation though, and was probably only used as tank repair facility.
Given the scale of employment of captured artillery problems with ammunition seem to be exaggerated somewhat. Finding fuel was several hundreds of tanks was more than possible.

[Art]

My question is why there doesn't seem to have been a major effort by the Germans to utilize these abandoned tanks.

That would take a lot of activity. You need to reconnoiter vast areas, asses tank's technical conditions, tow damaged and immobilized tanks, make a repair (which would be needed in most cases), find spare parts somewhere. This work can only be done by specialized units possessing necessary equipment and technical specialists. As far as I understand German tank maintenance elements were mostly decentralized to combat units (tanks companies/regiments). They were overwhelmed with the task of maintenance of their own tanks and possessed no technical expertise regarding Soviet tanks whatsoever. Also advance in the first weeks of the war was so fast that in a couple of weeks German panzer divisions with their maintenance elements were already hundreds kilometers from former battlefields. Add to that a simple fact that many Soviet tanks were abandoned in areas where there were no panzer divisions operating. For those reasons recovery of soviet tanks was only sporadic. The German High Command from its side seemed to be uninterested and unwilling to allocate any resources.

[Paul Lakowski]

Going by Chamberlain & Doyle there were still 39 Soviet tanks listed on Dec 1944. Similarly 29 French tanks listed in service at 1944 . That force started with 600 captured Hotchkiss tanks in 1941 that dwindled to 29 by 1944. Similarly 12 Somua were left in service in 1944 from an original batch of 372 captured in 1940. The Lorraine tractor seems better with 482 captured in 1940 and 315 converted to various roles , with 131 still in service in 1944.

This suggests actual Russian tanks utilized was probably a lot more than the official figures imply.

[Art]

According to Mueller-Hillebrand there were 126 captured tanks (mostly Soviet-built) in use on the Eastern Front in May 1943. A non-negligible number but still a small proportion to German-produced AFVs. At the same time there were about 700 captured tanks (mostly French) on other theaters - West, Balkans etc.

[Michael Kenny]

'Rewards' were offered to German Units who turned in their captured tanks because they were not reporting or listing them. They knew that listing their prizes would result in losing them. This system is explained in the Panzer Tracts book on Captured Tanks in German Service.

[Peter89]

Check this thread for Soviet AFVs in German service: viewtopic.php?t=229544

And this article for French ones: https://www.axishistory.com/books/138-e ... an-service

Hundreds of them were in use.