RangerJoe
Posts: 13450
Joined: 11/16/2015 From: My Mother, although my Father had some small part. Status: offline
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Lisbon was a major spy center for both sides, as I recall. Nazi Germany had to make more munitions after France fell, stocks were depleted. So there would have been some ammo and toys like explosives to play with, but production needed to be expanded. Likewise, the production of medium tanks needed to be expanded since in the combat units the light tanks such as the Mark Is were going to be eliminated and the Mark II usage severely curtailed. The short barreled STUG III was just being introduced, the long barreled version came later. The Germans still depended a large part on the Czech tanks a year later. Truck production was messed up and should have been streamlined into just one model for military production for the various sizes like the US equivalent of the 1/4 ton Utility Truck, the 3/4 ton Pick-up, the Weapons Carrier, and the 2 1/2 ton truck where all manufacturers of military trucks would make the same design. My understanding is that this was not done during the war at all. Staff studies would have a lot to do with this, but Hitler would have the final say. He would also direct the planning and until Italy came in and France could be defeated, there would not be a lot of concrete steps to be taken anyway. Once Italy came in, Little Bennie wanted to show that Italy could play with the big boys and wanted to secure the Med for Italy, no help from Germany wanted or needed. At least, until Italy was spanked rather severely. I had already mentioned what an aggressive, maybe overly aggressive, Italian military could have tried. But until all the units that Germany wanted had been equipped plus what minor forces needed to be equipped since there was little to no more modern equipment produced in those countries, Italy could expect little assistance with German equipment for the Italian military. What Italy could have done would have been to consolidate new equipment requirements and production so there would be a commonality in parts and munitions, much like what Europe and NATO is doing today.
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Seek peace but keep your gun handy. I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing! “Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).” ― Julia Child
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