Yes this minor exception, what were those troops tied down from doing? A large chunk was Manchurian troops, decidedly lower in quality then Japanese Regulars, and the Japanese in the area were ill-equipped and no were near as prepared to fight any enemy, let alone the battle-hardened Soviet juggernaut that was thrown at them. These soldiers couldn't be transported back to Japan, the seas in between were crawling with US subs, most of the transports available to Japan were gone, sunk by the United States and Royal Navies, these troops could do little in there present place to make any change on the outcome of the war.

And this is a serious question, exactly what do you consider the other 33% of the Soviet transport, tanks aren't used for infantry transport..... so what? So yes, without their trucks, the Soviets are crippled, they cannot use their offensive tactics to the maximum they could have against the Germans, they are facing a better equipped enemy, with Air superiority. And the Germans advanced so quickly mostly becuase they acheived utter surprise, against France and the Soviets they were using entirely new tactics and the enemy defenses entirely evaporated, but those tactics became common later in the war, and you don't see any repeats of the early German successes, so it is unlikely the Soviets could reproduce this, especially since they operate under different tactics.

And soldiers don't win wars by themselves, ok, so a soldier under optimal conditions, leaves for the front with 3 days supply of food, and several pounds of ammo the basics for right now. Great, so this Soviet soldier fights for a day, defends some hill from the allies, but now he's running very low on ammo, no matter how much he conserves, he NEEDS to be re-supplied by something, but nope, as you said, it's soldiers that win wars, apparently munitions mean nothing. So now he's defending this hill with whatever he can, rocks, dirt, his hands, and by some miracle he holds out against armed soldiers, but now it's day 4, he is out of food and water, he can only go so far no matter how courageous he is before he collapses from exhuastion, though it is more likely on Day 2 he is shot down by a well-supplied Western soldier.

The French though their Elan Vitale, or the spirit of their soldiers would lead them to victory in August 1914, they were horridly mistaken, no matter how much spirit and courage a soldier has he can't do a damn thing without the proper supplies, so yes, supplies mean just as much as the soldier does. And those supplies cannot simply be marched from a railhead, sure the Germans didn't exclusively use trucks for supply, in fact they used in large quantities horses, as opposed to the motorized (that means trucks) supply of the Allies, and I'd hate to spoil the end of the war for you, but Germany loses.

[ 31. December 2003, 06:15 AM: Message edited by: Vanguard ]

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