Still working on sorting out the events on 6 July 1943 with the Das Reich SS Division at Luchki.
Das Reich’s first reported destroyed tank was at 0235 on 7 July (T354, R605, page 556). It was a Panzer IV. It then provides a map showing 6 tanks destroyed SSW of Luchki (1 Pz III, 2 Pz IVs, 1 Pz VI and 2 T-34s). The map is undated, but is probably between 6 and 9 July. Das Reich took Luchki (south) on 6 July. This map is shown here:
There is a 10-day report for 10 July. These are usually the best source for total loss reports. The report total losses as of 10 July as being 1 Pz III long, 1 Pz IV long and 1 StuG (T313, R387, page 6831). There is also a Corps’ quartermaster log, where they report that as of 7/11, there were three tanks totally destroyed: 1 Pz III, 1 Pz IV and 1 StuG III (T354, R607, pg 507). Hard to square these reports up with the map of Luchki showing six tanks destroyed.
It is only until the 28th of July do we get a complete listing for Das Reich of total losses for the period of 5-18 July. There was no 10-day status report for the 20th of July. The 28 July report records for Das Reich total losses of 2 Pz III, 6 Pz IV, 1 Pz VI and 2 StuG (T354, R607, page 629). This is total of 11 tanks, but does not include T-34s, where at least two were totally destroyed. We ended up recording 18 as destroyed based upon multiple sources (see page 1336 of my Kursk book).
The same report also records LSSAH total losses as 1 Pz Ib, 1 Pz III, 9 Pz IV, 1 Pz VI, 3 StuG, and 3 “Pak Sf.” (Marders). Same for Totenkopf SS, where they report 6 Pz IIIs, 7 Pz IVs, 1 Pz VI, 1 StuG and 2 Marders.
Now this was a clean-up report. There were other earlier reports of total losses that indicate less losses. On 23 July there is a report of tanks destroyed by the corps (T354, R605, page 853). It reports for the II SS Panzer Corps 5 Pz III long, 23 Pz IV long, 3 Pz VI and 5 Sturmgeschutz (assault guns). This does not quite match the report on 28 July. On 28 July they report 9 Pz III (+4), 22 Pz IV long (-1), 3 Pz VI and 6 StuG (+1). There was no fighting between 23 and 28 July, 1943 as the SS Panzer Corps was moving to conduct its next offensive.
A few things come to mind here:
- According to our accounting, Das Reich lost 129 tanks damaged and 18 destroyed between 4 July and 18 July (see page 1337 of my Kursk book).
- They apparently only lost 13-18 tanks destroyed in that period.
- It does appears that tanks are being written off as destroyed several days after they were actually damaged, in some cases a week or more later.
- Clearly, looking at destroyed tanks only does not really give a full and proper accounting of the actual fighting.
If you really want to know what is going on with combat among the German armored divisions in WWII, you really need to compare and contrast the ready-for-action reports from day-to-day.
Anyhow, not sure I am any closer to determining what happened on the 6th of July, if any significant did happen.
Tank losses are much more difficult to deal with than casualties, which is why I am wary of using them for analytic purposes. I simply refrain from using them at all, unless the time span is large enough to make ambiguities rather small.
Daily tank losses (complete write-offs) are hard to verify in many cases (as the examples above illustrate). Tanks put out of action are often not reported and can only be estimated. Also, Such figures can often include very significant numbers of tanks putout of action due to causes other than enemy action.
If we look at a time span long enough, the problems are reduced, but only for destroyed (complete write-offs).
Well, a major reason I was looking at this was to see if there was a major tank battle on 6 July 1943 near Luchki that had not been previously examined. So far, I have nothing to indicate a major fight except for the 6 tanks destroyed SSW of Luchki. If there are five tanks damaged for each destroyed, then this could be a very large fight. I have nothing else to indicate that something like this happened on this day.