What was the percent of total German forces engaged on the Eastern Front?

[Art]

According to the OKH graph HG D had 146 000 men in SS and LW ground units ("inexact figures" as comment says). Or 89 000 on 1 May.
http://wwii.germandocsinrussia.org/pages/32830/zooms/8
I remember, there was a discussion on this forum about how many men were in various Wehrmacht components in the West in June 44.

[Sid Guttridge]

Germany mobilized nearly 20,000,000 men during WWII. Only around 16%-18% of this total seem to have been dedicated to the Eastern Front at any one time.

Only a minority of any armed forces was usually on an active battlefront at any one time, because modern armed services require massive support services that necessarily will almost always outnumber the men in field units on the front. Furthermore, even combat formations were regularly rotated through operational front lines from quieter theatres.

Thus, although some 80% of German casualties to the end of 1944 had been suffered on the Eastern Front, nothing approaching 80% of German mobilized manpower was ever specifically dedicated to the Eastern Front at any one point, even though most of them were probably ultimately destined for it at one time or another.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Art]

Germany mobilized nearly 20,000,000 men during WWII. Only around 16%-18% of this total seem to have been dedicated to the Eastern Front at any one time.

I believe in the summer 1941 more than 50% of the Wehrmacht personnel (including air force or navy elements) were assigned to the Eastern Front. Further on the percentage went smaller and smaller.

[gracie4241]

The bottom line is that of total german MILITARY Manpower the Eastern Front peaked at around 3.2-3.3 million out of a peak total of around 9.5 million men.As a point of reference Soviet total military manpower was 12 million(??-suspicions warranted about soviet figures) and the field army around 6-6.5 million.A similar percentage would have provided the germans with just under 5 million men in their eastern army, which along with 1 million or so axis allies would have given them numerical parity .O'brien. "How the War was Won", using many figures from "Germany and the Second World War" and the USSBS survey establishes that germany at no time invested more than 20% of its armament production on army equipment and weapons(for everywhere), and 70% on air and naval related programs.( example;8,800 88 mm guns as home defense flak v 800 on the Eastern Front is A LOT OF MISSED FIREPOWER-not to mention thousands of 105, 128 mm guns and 25,000 20 mm-- -and its ammunition ).German CASUALTIES were much higher in the East of course, because of the nature and length of the conflict in a more manpower oriented war.But GERMAN MILITARY EFFORT overall was in fact greater in the west in a more machine oriented War.That isn't always reflected here.PS the missing 10% was indeed under army control, but was used for the Atlantic Wall and V-2 programs(9 Billion RM) which all would concede had no relevance at all to the russian campaign

[Richard Anderson]

The bottom line is that of total german MILITARY Manpower the Eastern Front peaked at around 3.2-3.3 million out of a peak total of around 9.5 million men.

Um, no, sorry, but the "peak total" (also starting total) of the Ostheer as of c. 1 June 1941 was around 3.206 million (without SS) from a total Wehrmacht strength given as 7.331 million, which was not peak Wehrmacht strength. That was achieved c. mid 1944 as 12.240 million, including non-combatants (OT, NSKK, Beamte).
However, while the peak total of the Ostheer includes OKH reserves it does not include SS, Luftwaffe, or Kriegsmarine assigned to the east. Luftwaffe alone amounted to just over 10% of the Heer strength, roughly 350,000 in the LW forces in the east. KM and SS were much smaller, but likely account for around 100,000 or more.