http://www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_6.html

The German Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres or OKH) assigned 148 divisions, including 19 panzer divisions, to the invasion of the USSR. Total personnel strength was 3,050,000 men. Initially the armies had 3,350 tanks, 7,184 artillery pieces, 600,000 motor vehicles, and 625,000 horses, and the Luftwaffe provided 2,500 aircraft of all types. The Finnish Army added 500,000 men, and Romania furnished 14 divisions or about 250,000 men. After the invasion started, Hungary, Italy, and the puppet state of Slovakia also furnished contingents of troops. An additional 5 German divisions under the direct control of the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW)

600.000 motor vehicles. is that correct?

But 625,000 horses....definitely big problems with getting motorized...

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One has to take into account that a significant part of those vehicles were "mobilized" civilian vehicles and captured foreign, of doubtful suitability.

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/germanhorse/

"Despite highly ballyhooed emphasis on employment of mechanized forces and on rapid movement, the bulk of German combat divisions were horse drawn throughout World War II. Early in the war it was the common belief of the American public that the German Siegfrieds of Hitler's Blitz rode forth to battle on swift tanks and motor vehicles. But the notion of the mechanized might of the German Wehrmacht was largely a glamorized myth born in the fertile brains of newspapermen. Actually, the lowly horse played a most important part in enabling the German Army to move about Europe.

Public opinion to the contrary, so great was the dependence of the Nazi Blitzkrieg upon the horse that the numerical strength of German Army horses maintained during the entire war period averaged around 1,100,000. Of the 322 German Army and SS divisions extant in November 1943, only 52 were armored or motorized. Of the November 1944 total of 264 combat divisions, only 42 were armored or motorized. The great bulk of the German combat strength—the old-type infantry divisions—marched into battle on foot, with their weapons and supply trains propelled almost entirely by four-legged horsepower. The light and mountain divisions had an even greater proportion of animals, and the cavalry divisions were naturally mainly dependent on the horse.

The old-type German infantry division had approximately 5,300 horses, 1,100 horse-drawn vehicles, 950 motor vehicles, and 430 motorcycles. In 1943, due to the great difficulties in supply and upkeep of motor vehicles in the wide stretches of the Eastern Front, the allotment to divisions in that theater was reduced to approximately 400 motor vehicles and 400 motorcycles, and the number of horses was increased to some 6,300. The 1944-type divisions had about 4,600 horses, 1,400 horse-drawn vehicles, 600 motor vehicles, and 150 motorcycles. "

Mechanized Juggernaut or Military Anachronism?: Horses and the German Army of World War II (Contributions in Military Studies) by R. L. DiNardo

http://www.axishistory.com/index.php?id=6135

"... Without the extensive booty from the western campaign of 1940, these units would have remained without weapons and vehicles. Motor vehicles in particular played an important role in the motorization the divisions. The 18.PzD was equipped with strictly stock French motor vehicles until the end of May 1941...

Most of the motor vehicles (German, French or other booty trucks) massively used for various transports were not to have long lives under the rough conditions of the Eastern theatre of war. The progressive deterioration of the German army's motor vehicle situation already in the autumn of 1941 led to numerous use and new production of French trucks ... "

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Bah!

Opel made some good trucks. This one had over 82.000 produced.

http://www.autogallery.org.ru/blitz36.htm


"Without the extensive booty from the western campaign of 1940, these units would have remained without weapons and vehicles. Motor vehicles in particular played an important role in the motorization the divisions. The 18.PzD was equipped with strictly stock French motor vehicles until the end of May 1941..."

This is what I was after. Germans took loads of vehicles from Holland as well. I can't really agree though with the "Kubelwagens" being built in large numbers, there obviously would have been some motorized transport.

& perhaps the larger percentage of vehicles were used in transportation role as opposed to panzer motorized support.

Exactly, most vehicles would be used in logistical rather than for tactical purposes. Troops can walk, but supplies have to be carried.

I also read somewhere (please don't stretch my memory!) that a number of British vehicles (Bedford, Morris etc. trucks) of those captured in France by the thousands were sent to the Leningrad Front. The trucks were fine except for a small detail of a glass part in the carburettor that in the '41 winter spontaneously shattered with the cold, thereby rendering the vehicles unusable with the spares source somewhat unwilling to supply.

If I may add some personal experience, until recently I was the fleet manager of our firm in Ireland for 18 months. We were using a sizable number of 4wd Nissan and Mitsubishi light trucks, all modern types and brand new vehicles. We did a lot of off road work, and the climate is decent. Wet and at times unpleasant with the wind but even in full winter we didn't have many days with below 0ºC temperatures. Quite mild, really.

Well, it was quite normal to have daily availability rates of only 75%, which means that on a single day I would have 1 vehicle in 4 stopped for some reason. Broken clutches, broken suspensions, electrical troubles, going off road and smashing against the roadsides, overturnings, you name it!

And we had nobody shooting at us (yet), we weren't under -40ºC, no rasputitsa, we had our own workshop, and when we needed parts we went to the brand shop and just picked them over the counter. I can't begin to imagine what the East Front would be like.

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Bah!

Mind, those trucks were 2x4 only, that means, traction on rear wheels only, a civilian truck painted grey! If you want a serious truck you need to talk to the people with the know-how and wherewithal to make them right.

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Bah!

Seems very likely that US companies were still supplying rearmament trucks to the Reich right up until her entry into the war, current research seems to be confirming commercial links during the conflict too.
I love trucks. Blitz, OY, FAT, Horch, Bussing NAG, Jimmy, Chevy, etc. etc. They fascinate me, reading 'Wheels & Tracks' is a great pleasure. Yet I still don't understand what this is all about . The much-vaunted mechanised might of the Wehrmacht was propped up on shaky equine shoulders, this is, perhaps surprisingly to some, true.
CB? are you just attempting to clarify numbers, as the question implies or is there some subtext that I'm missing?
Nice to have 4 or 5 Opels on paper but not so useful to have them being towed in a long slithering train through foot deep mud and snow by the very AFV's they're supposed to be rushing about supporting.
Cheers,
Adam.

Edit: Cross-posted with Za's 2 above, can confirm the German use of British trucks from Dunkirk to the extent that they remanufactured many modifying the bodywork to their own designs.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

Opel trucks were not winterized, but I would imagine they were after winter of 41. & they did make some 4x4 stuff as well.

http://www.autogallery.org.ru/blitz4x4.htm

25.000 made.

The thread point is yes to clarify the whole motorized transport subject. The problem with numbers is that they near impossible to attain with certitude. Captured Dutch & Belgian vehicles for example. How on earth can one guesstimate how many were used in eastern front? & how can one determine the breakdown of vehicle type? how many were trucks, cars, buses. & what percentage were civilian & what percentage were military designs.

http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...&threadid=3025

Romanians got some Ford's too. Yugoslavia got Chevys.

You're right, it's impossible to quantify. The point I tried to carry across with my notes on my experience was that these vehicles were very fragile and considering road conditions in Russia (I take it you saw those mud road pictures recently published) it would be very difficult to keep a significant number running. Hence the importance of railways, but that's another matter.

Converting those Opel Blitz to 4x4 was a good idea, only the numbers (25,000) were as ever with the Reich insufficient. The Russians got a quarter off a million trucks in Lend Lease only (go to the recent thread on LL for exact figures) and even then sustaining offensive operations was a pain, no wonder their offensives worked by hiccups.

Also something that is not generally taken into consideration is that we normally have available figures for American origin LL, I would like to see the same level of detail on Canadian equipment and suplies sent to the SU. In this particular case I mean the cornucopia of Canadian Military Pattern Fords and Chevrolets.

Very interesting forum, by the way.

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Bah!

Getting those trucks was a bit of a *** as well.

I read about the Finnish volunteer battalion that recruited during summer 1941 and entered the battle with Wiking Dec 1941. They were trained in Germany and the trucks had to be fetched from Paris first...

I´ll take alook on the figures if there are any mentions on the truck losses as they travelled to Southern Russia in Dec 1941 and that was when the front was in front of them.

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Also I suppose the Germans mainly put their transport on trains ??

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With all the various trucks just think of the spare part department!

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"Finnish Volunteer Battalion of Waffen-SS left Gross-Born as five railway transports on 3.12.1941 and unloaded on the 8th of December at Vinnitsa, Ukraine. From there battalion continued using its own motor vehicles.

About a month later after a very slow, muddy and snowy motorized march battalion got to front at river Mius on 8.1.1942 with only one third of its vehicles being operational."

http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/qu...2130/march.htm

And this was with no battle involved.

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A lesson learned in the Desert campaign was that it was better to have a small mobile force than a large slow force.

Another interesting issue is that an Armd. div is more wounrable to shelling than the infantry div. The logistics for the Armd. div is all soft skinned. 10th Armd div feared that they would be cut off from their supplies if they attempted to break out early during Lightfoot.

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'We march. The enemy is retreating in transport. We follow on foot.' Lt.Neil McCallum 5/7 Gordons 19th November 1942

With 600.000 vehicles I think it safe to say T.A's comment is off the mark.

"capturing the Caucaus oil fields would do the Germans little or no good; they had no vehicles to use the oil!"


& remember, the Germans drained oil from conqured areas. 4 million barrels from Russia 2nd half of 41 part of Barbarossa. & after spring/summer 42 offensive, they would have gained strength through captured vehicles & again the draining of fuel & oil from said vehicles. So again, his comment a bit off.

" the Germans started the Summer 42 offensive in a weakened and barely capable state declining from there and never recovering to even these levels."

Tha was 600,000 vehicles in the text counted when Barbarossa begun. How many do you suspect were left of that number in the summer of 1942, chrome?

I do believe the state of the German army can be seen from the fact that they could only start an offensive in one army group area alone in 1942. And once the army group divided to get both Stalingrad and Baku they were too weak to get either. I even dare say the Germans practically lost all the new equipment they had built and brought to the front for the summer 1942 campaign during the Aug 42 to Feb 1943 period.

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Za raises a very important point about Opel trucks : as 2x4 trucks they were really impaired by USSR condions (mud etc...) and very inferior to the US lend leased trucks that were delivered to Soviets.

And Soviets received loads of these. They received as much transport vehicules (cars and trucks) as they built on their own : for the whole lenght of the conflict, 50% of transport used by Soviets were produced by them (Zil trucks for example) and the other 50% were supplied via lend lease. As I said before, I believe this is the domain in which lend lease had the most important impact.

US trucks were the best trucks of WWII (anyway in logistics matters as a whole, my opinion is that US army was way better that any other army).

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Police cars carry three agents. The first one can read, the second one can write and the third one keeps watch on those dangerous intellectuals.
Unknown subversive activist - 20th century.

They would have gained many vehicles as the summer 42 campaign began & they defeated Russian armies.

The Red army actually during autumn 1942 operations did not let itself be surrounded so nothing gained, no POW´s,tanks, artillery etc to mention. This led Hitler to believe that the Red Army was finished. How wrong he was!

Not until the Germans got to Stalingrad when Stalin said " Not a step back!"

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The Russians smartened up in 42 & learned how to fight a withdrawal.

As planned, the offensive began with rapid advances reminiscent of the campaigns of the previous year; within a month, on 27 July, the Russians evacuated Rostov without a fight. Meanwhile the Panzer Armies smashed through and began encircling the thinly spread Soviet Sixty-Second Army defending the Don River basin. As a counter measure the Soviets sent the First Tank Army striking out from the left bank of the Don towards Kalach, threatening the flank of the Fourth Panzer Army. "The . . . counter-stroke did not lead to the routing of the German forces which had broken through the Don but, as later events demonstrated, it frustrated the enemy's plan of encircling and annihilating the Soviet Sixty-Second Army."[4] The Russians had learned to fight a withdrawal. This campaign would not be a repeat performance of the blitzkriegs of 1941; the Germans would seize territory, but few prisoners

Back to the motorized transport part. Not all Ostfront but interesting info:

" By the time the war ended, the Wehrmacht had used 2,700,00 horses , nearly twice as many as in the First World War!"

From Derek Robinson " Invasion, 1940 "

Oops!

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And I read that most of them got eatten by the troops.

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Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

True enough. I wonder what was used to transport the AFV from the trains to the front?

It was standard practice to use truck transports to save on wear and tear.

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