Killing tanks is generally not the same as shooting down aircraft.
In most circumstances, a plane shot down cannot be used again, except for maybe a belly landing with minor damage.
With tanks, it is very well possible to restore most knocked out tanks.
So basically, if you're in command of the field, you can recover most of the tanks you lost.
So if you lose territory, you lose more tanks than those that take the territory.
After repelling an attack on the retreat, german troops mostly tried blowing up the enemy tanks knocked out in front of their position.
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