Apollo11
Posts: 24082
Joined: 6/7/2001 From: Zagreb, Croatia Status: offline
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Hi all, quote:
ORIGINAL: warspite1 quote:
ORIGINAL: Panther Bait I believe for all the talk of the mighty German armored/mechanized divisions, that they were largest users of horse-drawn equipment/transports in WW2. The UK highly mechanized/motorized before the war, and the US was as well. The Russians less so, but I think still more than the Germans (one of the top lend-lease items to the Soviets was trucks IIRC). The Japanese probably had the least mechanization, but I don't think they had a lot of horses either. They designed a lot of their equipment to be man-portable (probably often by non-soldiers). Mike P.S. When I say highly mechanized/motorized, I don't mean to say everyone rode instead of walked. I am really talking about the use of horse transport vs. motorized/mechanized transport where it was necessary (heavy weapon platoons, artillery/ATGs, etc.). I fully understand that most infantry troops, at least outside the armored/mech divisions, walked into battle. warspite1 The problem was realised before the war, but in Hitler's mad rush to take over Europe there was not the time or the resources to fix the problem. Fact was in 1935 there was 1 vehicle for every 65 Germans, and on the outbreak of war that had only increased to 1 in 47. In Britain those numbers were 1 in 23 and 1 in 14 and even higher in France. For the US it was 1 in 5 and 1 in 3. Why was this a problem? Well the fewer cars per populace, the fewer drivers, the fewer mechanics, the fewer factories and assembly lines, spare parts and workshops. The factories needed to pump out the motor vehicles required by the army took time to build up and so did all the ancillary items that were needed to go with them. And of course there was the added complication that the air force and the navy were also competing for the limited resources. Oberst Adolf von Schell was made Plenipotentiary for Motor Vehicles and he spent time in Detroit seeing how Ford worked and what Germany needed if they were to bring the army into the 20th Century. The German motor industry had too many companies making too many different types of vehicle with the result that the precious few resources to go round were not being used to best effect. Outside of the panzer and motorised divisions an over reliance upon horses was the result. Figures from James Holland War In The West Also also let us not forget the German usage of numerous foreign trucks (French, Czech etc.) that were also used until they broke down due to overuse and lack of spare parts and maintenance... Leo "Apollo11"
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Prior Preparation & Planning Prevents Pathetically Poor Performance! A & B: WitW, WitE, WbtS, GGWaW, GGWaW2-AWD, HttR, CotA, BftB, CF P: UV, WitP, WitP-AE
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