There seems to be a contradiction in the number of dead reported in the above numbers and the numbers that are buried in the 5 German cemetaries in Normandy. The number of dead in the cemeteries are as follows:Mark V. wrote:Another number (Klapdor):
Heeresgruppe B reported on 14th August a total loss of 158,930 men in the period 6th June - 14th August:
3630 officers (including 14 generals),
151,487 NCOs and men,
3813 Russians,
plus a loss of another 45,000-50,000 men in Falaise pocket.
This would give a total number of around 210,000.
According to the OKH/Heeresarzt (Tieke):
23,019 dead,
198,616 MIA,
67,240 wounded
=288,875
Mont d' Huisnes Cemetary - 11,956
Marigny Cemetary - 11,169
Orglandes Cemetary - 10,152
le Cambe - 21,200
St. Desir de Lisieux - 3,735
variouss British Cementaries - 2,300
Total =60,485
Also there is the German Cemetary at Saint Andre (Eure,Depart.), haven't got a map handy so not sure exactly where this one is and it's relationship to Normandy.
Anyway as you can see there are 60, 485 Germans dead in these 5 cemetaries, which is 2.6 times more then the OKH figure. Also if you assume that for every one soldier killed, approximately 2.5 are wounded ( for the germans only , based on the numbers of killed and wounded for June, July and August, in Zetterling book) you would get (60,485 x 2.5) = 151,212 wounded and giving a total killed and wounded count of 211,697. Oddly enough the number of MIA is close to the 200,000+ the Allies claimed to have captured, which means that the MIA number is probably on the low side as this number would include bodies not recovered. This gives us a total casualty count of about 411,697. I realize that the wounded assumptions i've made are on shaky ground , but they were't chosen at random either.
So where did all the extra bodies come from ??? Navy and Luftwaffe and rear services casualities wouldn't account for this descrapency, the differenc between OKH and cemetaries is 37,466. Any suggestions.