For PanzerJaeger, comparing the armies of WW2

[rotorgun]

If I may move a bit from tank discussions, I wanted to ask some more knowledgable people here about manpower of Germany and SU. People often emphasize Soviet huge manpower, expecially compared to the Germans.

Now, at the time of WW2, Germany had around 50 million population. Soviet Union had 120 million. If we count all satelite states of Germany (Romania, Hungary etc...) that is probably 10-20 million more. Now, before the war even started Soviets lost enormous amonts of territory, most notably Ukraine and a good deal of European Russia, which was most heavily populated territory. Furthermore, German started sieging even more big population centers like Leningrad for example.

So at the onset of the winter 1941, Germans are in front of Moscow, Leningrad is besieged, much of territory is lost. How much population was "left" in the SU? If I'm not mistaken, most of new soldiers were conscripted from behind the Urals, which wasn't your most densely populated area of the SU. I somehow think that this entire "huge manpower advantage" was a bit exagerated, and that the reason Soviets had so much more men was that they adjusted their entire country to "total war" concept from the start, while Germans haven't until some time later. Any insights?

Here was an interesting link I came across last night as I was wondering about some of the casualty figures quoted in various posts. It contains some useful information to compare the relative strengths and losses estimated for many countries, even some of the more obscure ones.

http://www.worldwar-2.net/casualties...ties-index.htm

Here is what is claimed for both Germany and the Soviet Union:

Germany - World War 2 Flag Germany
Status: Independent
Type of Government: Dictatorship
Religion: Christian
Population: 73,000,000 (1938)
Germans - 70,990,000
Poles - 1,000,000
Jews - 707,000
Russians - 200,000
Danes - 30,000
Gypsies - 28,000
Wends - 20,000
Frisians - 15,000
Lithuanians - 10,000 Alignment (1939 - 1945):
Axis Partner
1st Sep 1939 - 8th May 1945 Casualties (1939 - 1945):
Soldiers (Axis) - 3,350,000 Killed
Civilians - 3,043,000 Killed
Jews - 205,500 Killed
Gypsies - 20,000 Killed

USSR - World War 2 Flag Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)
Status: Independent
Type of Government: Communist
Religion: Atheist
Population: 190,000,000 (1939)
Russians - 100,000,000
Ukrainians - 15,400,000
Uzbekis - 10,000,000
Kazakhs - 5,000,000
Byelorussians - 4,400,000
Azerbaijanis - 2,500,000
Tajiks - 2,500,000
Georgians - 2,100,000
Turkmen - 2,000,000
Jews - 1,907,000
Kyrgyz - 1,500,000
Armenians - 1,300,000
Kabardins - 700,000
Ossetians - 600,000
Chechens - 350,000
Volksdeutsch - 340,000
Tatars - 300,000
Bulgars - 200,000
Greeks - 125,000
Gagaus - 100,000
Others - 38,678,000 Alignment (1939 - 1945):
Neutral
1st Sep 1939 - 22nd Jun 1941
Allied Partner
22nd Jun 1941 - 8th May 1945
Neutral
8th May 1945 - 9th Aug 1945
Allied Partner
9th Aug 1945 - 2nd Sep 1945 Casualties (1941 - 1945):
Soldiers (Allied) - 13,300,000 Killed
Soldiers (Axis) - 408,000 Killed
Civilians - 6,500,000 Killed
Jews - 1,000,000 Killed

As one can see, the Soviets outnumbered Germany by almost 3-1 in manpower. What is interesting is the disparity in casualties, with the Germans dishing out a better than 4-1 outcome in military casualties. Of course many of Germany's losses were suffered in the west, but over 75% were likely from the east front.

PS: I think that this shows that there wasn't a "huge manpower advantage". It was also the vast areas involved in the Eastern campaign and the fact that Germany was fighting in the west, and in Southern Europe and Africa as well that made it impossible for the German Army to keep up with the attrition.