What were the German losses on the Eastern Front?

Answer 1

The Russians lost about 10 million soldiers on the eastern front, of which approx. 4 million died as pow's (almost all Russian pow's died in German captivity). In addition to that about 20 million Russian civilians died.

Germany lost in total 5.5 million dead soldiers and 1.8 million dead civilians. In addition to that about 8 million German soldiers were captured. On the eastern front approx. 3.5-4 million German soldiers died (around 75%). At the end of the war, the Russians held about 3 million German pow's, Americans held about 4 million (of which they transferred 1 million after the war to the Russians), and the british held about 1 million German pow's.

So the biggest losses of the Germans were indeed on the eastern front, but if you also take pow's into account, losses are almost matched.

This site contains a breakdown of all casualties during ww2 per battle:

http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm

The German military suffered around 2,800,000 killed. Of these around 2,000,000 died on the Eastern Front, 300,000 died on other fronts, and 500,000 died in captivity. The Soviet Union suffered 14,500,000 killed total. Of these 3,330,000 died in captivity.

Answer 2

It is generally accepted that of the total German military combat deaths in WWII, which numbered about 3.4 million, about 75% and possibly 80% were on the eastern front. Additionally, up to June 1944 (Normandy) the percentage was even higher since there was little combat elsewhere that generated large casualties. German material losses on the eastern front were also huge representing over 80% of artillery, tank and truck losses. Aircraft losses were about 50/50 on the eastern and western front. Of course, naval losses were almost exclusively in the west, even including defensive actions taken against Soviet attempts to massacre civilians on the open seas late in the war in the Baltic. It is said that, 9 out of 10 German soldiers killed in World War II were on the Eastern Front.

Answer 3

At least 3.3 million men dead out of a total of 5.5 million - in other words, at least 60% of German military deaths were on the Eastern Front.