Karl Franz
Member
Agreed, the Soviet logistics benefited greatly from mechanization and simply put the Soviets had the resources to have such a big logistic organization. I believe you are spot on about the trucks, they were the most important component of the land lease for the Soviets. They had enough tanks, guns, planes, but the trucks came in very handy.I think that the logistics capabilities of the Germans and the Russians were decades apart and that's what was a war winner for the Russians. The Russians made great use of trucks, especially American Lend-Lease trucks which they given by the tens of thousands. From memory the vast majority were Studebaker and White trucks. So they were able to truck just about everything to the frontline. They also used their rail system efficiently and effectively, and it wasn't being destroyed like the German one was in Europe. Also Stalin placed Russia on a war economy immediately and moved the essential industries behind the Ural mountains, well beyond German strike capabilities.
The Germans were behind on mechanization, but I think this was because of necessity not negligence, they simply did not have the fuel. I read that total German consumption of fuel during the war never reached British non-military consumption. As such even if the Germans produced 100k-200k trucks they would most likely be sitting at the depots with not enough fuel to use them. I am personally not too hard on German logistic planners as they had an uphill battle with megalomaniacs in both Hitler and OKH. They warned about German inability to conduct the successful invasion before the war and that the shortages of work manpower (sent into combat) would result in lower production of war materials at home, they were ignored.On the German side, the Wehrmacht logistics was poor in comparison. They didn't have a large motorised logistics fleet comprised of trucks. Their logistics fleet was mostly horse drawn, as was their artillery. Even in 1944 this was so and graphic evidence of this an be seen in film and photos taken after finish of the Battle of the Falaise Gap in France in 1944, where Allied Forces decimated the German Army Group B, 7th Army, and 5th Panzer Army. Hitler also never put the German economy on to a war footing until 1942 and that was a mistake.