Figure 1.--The popular image of the German force invading the Soviet Union is the Panzers and motorized infantry. Often forgotten are the 750,000 horses that carried the Wehrmacht east. The massive NAZI force in fact was not a fully motorized army. Here apparently Russian boys were recruited to help care for the horses. I am not sure how willing they were. The German soldiers seem to be having fun at shaving the boy's head to delouse him. The photograph is undated, but was probanly taken in late-November 1941, just before the Red Army counter attack before Moscow.

Hitler assembled what Goebbels claimed was the greatest concentation of forces in world history. They were correct. The Germans invasion force totaled 153 divisions and more than 3 million men. It was not an all-German force, but it was except for the Finns, titally under Hitler's control. The Barbarossa invasion force was the high point of the NAZI war effort. It was a much more powerful force than had struck in the West. And Hitler would never again be able to assemble a force of such magnitude. The Axis divisions were equipped with 600,000 million motorized vehicles, 3,580 tanks, 7,184 artillery pieces, and 2,740 air planes. Finish, Hungarian, and Romanian divisions accompanied the Whermacht and were soon joined by Italian divisions and the Spanish Blue Dvision. Hitler had wanted the French to participate, but Petain had refused. Even so, it was the most powerful military force ever assembled up to that time. And the heart of the force were the German Panzer forces, capable of rapidy driving deep into enemy lines and surrounding string points. The Luftwaffe was at the time the most powerful air frce in the world. The Barbarossa strike force included 2,000 planes. The Luftwaffe was, however, to be less of a factor on the vast battlefield in the East. There the Luftwaffe's size meant that it would not prove as critical as it had on the smaller battlefields in the West. The NAZI force, however, had an even more serious weakness. Despite the superb Panzer divisions, the Germans did not have a fully motorized army. And the trucks and other vehicles cobbeled together from all over Europe werevof many different types, greatly complicating logistics and maintenance. Even worse, many units were not not yet motorized. Entering the Soviet Uniion with the Germans were 750,000 horses. Horse power still played an importat role in the Wehrmact, both for transport and artillery. And as the weather turned cold, the Germans discovered that their horses did not have the stmina for the rigors of the Russian winter.

Created: 6:34 PM 12/8/2007
Last updated: 6:34 PM 12/8/2007