ignoring everything else, the winter rules are:
AFVs also have an increased chance of breakdown (damage) during combat when the combat is in a blizzard or snow level 6 or higher hex.
So its feasible that a lot of German tanks were damaged but not immediately destroyed. Remember the battle report uses 1-1 relationships in particular
'destroyed' element - everything 'killed'
'damaged/disrupted' element - nothing 'killed'
23.10.2:
So while the immediate reports use the relationship of destroyed element to indicate all the components are killed, the permanent lost calculations take into the possibility that some escaped (and were returned to the pool). Equally some parts of a damaged element might be later treated as KIA. In the main, the battle report and the last action column will tend to over-estimate the permanent losses from a battle
In the loss table this is refined to:
some destroyed survive
some damaged killed
In the logistics phase this is further modified
Some more damaged written off (killed)
So, the effect of the winter rule is more damage, its given the relationship experience/combat ability, looks like a lot of these damaged elements survived the battle (ie didn't get hit again), esp as the German won. The secondary recalculations will then come into play and its feasible the Germans did lose a few more.
edit - and they are completely different patches, so not really comparable (something worth checking)