the raw numbers

[yarbles]

I'm trying to wade through countless links but I'm having trouble trying to find some raw numbers. Mainly, what where the losses on the Eastern Front in terms of Russian/German planes and pilot losses. I was talking to my brother and I was trying to give him simple numbers to wrap his mind around so that he could sort of understand the magnitude of the conflict. He's a little familar with the Western theater but the Eastern Front is a black box. Thanks.

yarbles

[nearmiss]

Get onto google and do some Eastern front WW2 search. You'll get your information that way.

There are thousands of WW2 sites

[*Buzzsaw*]

Salute

The VVS (Soviet) official history of the airwar admits losses of approx. 60,000 Soviet aircraft to the Germans and their allies. The Soviets claim approx. 80,000 Axis aircraft destroyed.

There is no official Luftwaffe history, and many records were lost, but from what remains, historians were able to determine that approx. 15,000 German aircraft were lost on the East front.

Information on Finnish and other nationality losses are more available, and were under two thousand.

[secretone]

Does anyone have any idea how many German planes were lost in the West - just to compare?

[yarbles]

Thanks Buzzsaw - I appreciate the info. I'll shoot it over to my bro. I'll be blown away.

[Furio]

I can’t dispute how historians determined that approximately 15.000 German aircraft were lost on Eastern Front. Counting only the major types, Luftwaffe fielded no less than 90.000 planes during the war.
The vast majority was obviously destroyed or damaged beyond repair in air combat or on the ground, or captured by advancing ground forces. A sizable part was certainly lost in non-combat related accidents, while really few, if any, planes managed to reach the end of their service life.
Guessing numbers is obviously difficult, but some estimates can reasonably be reached.
Counting as 20% of total the non combat-related losses, Luftwaffe lost at least 70.000 aircraft. The majority of those losses was on the Eastern Front. If I’m not grossly wrong, that number should be not lower than 40.000.