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All the tank divisions were in desperate shape by this point, and even earlier for that matter. In the first month of BARBAROSSA alone, Guderian went from an operational force of 953 tanks to just 286. Of those remaining operational tanks, 132, were old Mark I and Mark IIs.

Now “wiped out” is a tricky word here though. The numbers above represent the tanks operational in late July 1941, but does not represent any indication that the “down” tanks were beyond repair which would make them truly wiped out. The problem at hand though was getting the necessary parts to repair them. If you recall, last month Hitler finally agreed to have 400 tank engines shipped to the Russian front to repair their forces along with only 35 new tanks. Guderian himself would have needed all 400 engines just to get to 60% operational strength. Of course he did not get all 400 and in fact 400 engines were not even the total that made it to the front anyway. It was closer to around 250.

So this report, though designed to be optimistic towards the Russians as all the reports on this front have been in the times thus far, is perhaps even an understatement.