Reply To: British Tank Losses at Goodwood

[MartinR]

Ah, yes. I’d not read far enough down. Yes there is a big disparity in the crew loss rates, but even the good Colonel essentially says he does’t know why and it it warrants  further investigation.

I would suggest small sample size, differences in duration and differences in tank loss recording (write offs vs damaged etc). The crews at Goodwood were also far less likely to have been outside their tanks doing non combat stuff like maintenance, eating, sleeping etc. Lots and lots of crew casualties occurred due to mortar, artillery and airstrikes when they were outside their vehicles.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke