Figure 1.--The Poles are often dispairaged for using horses to fight the Germans in World War II. Often unsaid is how dependent the suposedly modern Wehrmacht was on horse power. Here we see German army horses in 1935. Despite launching a rearmament program of unpresedented dimensions, the German industry even after 6 years was unable to build the vehicles need to fully motorize the Heer that Hitler took to war (1939). Thus the Heer as in World War I was still depent on horses for both moving supplies and artillery. And despite controling most of Europe, this was still the case when the Heer plunged into the Soviet Union (1941). Put your cursor on the image to see the inscription on the back.

Since time immemorial mobility had been a critical factor in warfare. The introduction of the horse revolutionized warfare (2000 BC). This did not change for millenia. The first major change was the railroads (mid-19th century). Next came wheeled/tracked vehiles. Both the railroads and vehicles required industrial economies. The British inroduced tanks and the Americans trucks in World War I. The Germans lagged in both areas because of limited industrial capacty and lack of petroleum resources. The Axis powers led by Germany decided on war even though they continued to lag in both areas, industrial capacity and petroleum resources. After the fall of France, Germany developed the reputation for the most modern military in the world with rapidly moving tanks slashing through enemy defenses. This made the headlines. Lost in the headlines ws the need for trucks to supply the anks and motorized infntry. In reality, Britain had the only fully mechanized army at the time of World War II and the French had excellent tanks. What the Germans had was a superior combat doctrine--doctrine. This brought them victory in the West (1940) and command of much of Continental Europe. But it did not change the fundamental weaknesses. Germany did not have the industrial capacity to fully mechanize its army of conquest. Nor did they have the petroleum resources to adeuately supply its military. The expansion of the German Grossraum did not change this as it still did not have the country's industrial capacity, in part because it actually weakened the energy situation. Energy shortages meant that the Germans could not fully utilize the industrial capacity of the captive nations. The only action that would fundamentally change the fundamental weaknesses of NAZI Germany was to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its resources. But the Whermacht that was sent into the Soviet Union in the Barbarossa offensive has to do so with inadequate petroleum resources and an inadequate fllet of trucks, cobbeled together from German trucks and cars and trucks seized from the occupied countries. The Germans had to rely heavily on hrses to both move artillery and supplies. And failing to defeat the Red Army in a short summer campign as Hitler expected, the Whermacht had to slog it our with the Red Army and Western Allies that had the industrial capacity to provide their armies the mobility that the wehrmacht could only dream at. Here the American industry produced vast quuatities of vehicles of all descrition and through Lend Lease provided huge numbers of trucks to the Red Army and the Allies virtually sailed to victory on a sea of oil.

Created: 4:50 AM 10/8/2009
Last updated: 11:53 AM 7/28/2011