High Tech German military - Page 7

JCFalkenbergIII · #**151** (**permalink**) August 2nd, 2008, 05:17 PM

Amon Goeth at the Plaszow camp

JCFalkenbergIII · #**152** (**permalink**) August 2nd, 2008, 05:41 PM

Falaise Gap

JCFalkenbergIII · #**153** (**permalink**) August 5th, 2008, 08:02 AM

In one area of twentieth-century life, the use of horses for transport was particularly remarkable. The Great War and the Second World War are seen as industrial wars, as feats of engineering and science and organisation. And so they were. Because of this both involved huge numbers of horses, which, like men, were conscripted. Every belligerent depended on them, as well as on mules, and other beasts of burden. Before the Great War, the small British army had 25,000 horses but by the middle of 1917 the great new mass British armies had 591,000 horses, 213,000 mules, 47,000 camels and 11,000 oxen. In late 1917 there were 368,000 British horses and 82,000 British mules on the Western Front alone, hugely outnumbering British motor vehicles. This was not a question of a deluded commitment to cavalry. Only one third of the British horses on the Western Front were for riding (and only some of these were in cavalry units) - the great majority transported the vast quantities of materiel required in modern war, particularly from the railheads to the front. The use of horses was not an exceptional emergency measure to make use of Britain's existing horses. Horses were desperately needed, and Britain bought 429,000 horses, and 275,000 mules from North America, and imported vast quantities of fodder too. Britain's ability to exploit world horse markets was crucial to its military power.[36] In any case the British were not unique. The vast American armies pouring into Europe in 1918 equipped each of their very large infantry divisions with 2,000 draught horses, another 2,000 riding horses, and no fewer than 2,700 mules: one horse or mule for every four men.
An even starker example of the continuing importance of the horse is provided by the Second World War. The German army, so often portrayed as centred on armoured formations, had even more horses in the Second World War than the British army had in the Great War. The horse was the ‘basic means of transport in the Germany Army'. German rearmament in the 1930s involved mass purchase of horses such that by 1939 the army had 590,000, leaving 3m others in the rest of the country. Each infantry division needed around 5,000 horses to move itself. For the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, 625,000 horses were assembled. As the war progressed the German horse army got ever larger as the Wehrmacht pillaged the agricultural horses of the nations it conquered. At the beginning of 1945 it had 1.2 million horses; the total losses of horses in the war are estimated at 1.5m.[37] Could it be that the Great War and the Second World War saw more horses in battle than any previous war? Could it be that the draught-horse to soldier ratio also increased, despite the use of other forms of transport?[38] Certainly the Wehrmacht embarked on its march to Moscow with many times more horses than Napoleon's Grand Armée.

HOST - journal of History of Science and Technology

JCFalkenbergIII · #**154** (**permalink**) August 11th, 2008, 05:58 PM

"BICYCLE-MOUNTED TROOPS
Newly created Volksgrenadier divisions not only have a bicycle-mounted reconnaissance battalion or company, but also have an entire battalion of infantry mounted on bicycles. In addition, the two engineer companies of the Division Engineer Battalion are bicycle-mounted. It may be assumed that some of the tactics employed by the bicycle-mounted company in the reconnaissance unit (Fusilier Battaillon) of the infantry division may also be used by the bicycle-mounted elements of the Volksgrenadier divisions. Here are several prisoner-of-war comments on this subject.
A prisoner remarks that when a bicycle-mounted squad is moving along a road as a point, anticipating contact with a hostile force, the squad leader and a runner are followed at a distance of about 50 yards by three machine gunners with a light machine gun, supported by a sniper, a semiautomatic rifleman, and two riflemen, one of whom is armed with a cup-grenade discharger. When the squad is fired on, the machine-gun detachment immediately deploys, while the remaining men drop their bicycles under the nearest available cover and take up firing positions.
The leading squad of a platoon is said to move with a rifleman, a semiautomatic rifleman, a machine gunner with light machine gun, a sniper, the squad leader and a runner, two machine gunners, and a rifleman armed with a cup grenade discharger—moving in that order. Fifty yards behind, the platoon commander and a runner, the platoon sergeant and a runner, a telegraph operator and a medical aid man, and an antitank rifleman follow—in the order named.
A prisoner from another unit comments that in his outfit it was common practice to send two bicycle-mounted scouts ahead of the point squad.
Prisoners remark that bicycle-mounted companies are expected to be able to cover up to 75 miles a day, but that, in actual operations, the figure seldom exceeds 50 or 60 miles.
Prisoners from certain bicycle-mounted companies say that they have been trained mainly in infantry tactics, and not primarily for reconnaissance missions. One unit was trained to move forward on its bicycles, leave them in farm buildings, and then go forward on foot to fight as infantry. In Russia a company was detached from an infantry regiment, equipped with bicycles, and formed into a reconnaissance company. These men were given the mission of protecting the regimental flank upon contact with a hostile force. "

Lone Sentry: In Brief (U.S. WWII Intelligence Bulletin, March 1945)

~~Mortman2004~~ · #**155** (**permalink**) August 11th, 2008, 06:13 PM

Wonder if they were using Schwinns?

JCFalkenbergIII · #**156** (**permalink**) August 11th, 2008, 06:49 PM

I. The Panje Column
In Russia, motorized transportation was useless many months of the year. During winter and muddy periods the entire supply and transportation system would have been completely paralyzed if supply columns of Panje wagons or Panje sleighs had not come to the rescue. These vehicles were in use throughout the Russian campaign and were looked upon as vital for the prosecution of the war.
When the German armored and motorized units swept across the dusty plains of Russia during the summer of 1941, nobody paid much attention to the insignificant little peasant horses of the Russian steppe. The tankers and truck drivers could not fail to notice the industrious little animals pulling heavily loaded peasant wagons cross-country whenever they were pushed off the road by the modern mechanical giants. They were looked upon sympathetically, but what was their performance compared to that of the steel colossi and multiton carriers? Any comparison obviously was out of the question. Many a man dismissed them with a disdainful gesture and the words: "A

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hundred years behind the times." Even next to the heavy cold-blooded draft horses and the tall mounts of the infantry divisions their dwarfish cousins seemed slightly ridiculous and insignificant.
A few months later the Panje horse was judged quite differently. It came into sudden demand during the muddy season when no motor vehicle could operate and any number of cold-blooded horses could not move the heavy guns and ammunition. How were the advance elements to be supplied when they were stranded without provisions? By Panje columns. Who brought the urgently needed ammunition to the front when the organic divisional supply columns were stuck in the mud as far as fifty miles to the rear of the advance elements? Again the Panje column. Who was capable of moving gasoline from the railheads to the mechanical colossi even through the deepest mud? The Panje horse. By what means of transportation were the badly wounded to be transported when the most modern ambulances could no longer advance in the mud? The answer was always the Panje horse and wagon. From then on they became faithful, indispensable companions of the field forces. In winter the Panje horse proved even more essential. The Panje sleigh became the universal means of transportation when motor vehicles were incapacitated and roads were snowbound or nonexistent. During the first months of 1942 some panzer divisions had as many as 2,000Panje horses but hardly a single serviceable motor vehicle. For that reason they received the nickname "Panje divisions." This unexpected turn of events made the veterinarian the busiest man in any panzer division.
A good idea of the role played by the Panje horse may be gathered from an incident which occurred to the 51st Rocket Launcher Regiment when it was moved into the Vitebsk area in January 1942. After having lost most of its vehicles during the battles for Moscow, the regiment was in the midst of reorganization when it was suddenly called upon to participate in the defense against a major enemy break-through at Toropets. The organic prime movers were either unserviceable or had been lost in previous battles. Only a few trucks in poor condition were available. Snowstorms and high snowdrifts at a temperature of -22° F. impeded all motor traffic on the roads. Enemy spearheads were approaching the vicinity of Vitebsk, Velizh, and Velikiye Luki.
In this emergency two rocket launcher batteries were hurriedly mounted on sleighs. Each battery of six 150-mm. launchers was assigned seventy-five Panje horses and three ammunition sleighs for each launcher. After they had crossed the frozen Dvina River the two batteries were committed for the relief of Velizh

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as part of a reinforced corps. Because of the heavy weight of the ammunition- each projectile weighed approximately 110 pounds- the few remaining trucks had to use the Vitebsk Velizh highway after it had been cleared of snow and mines. During this emergency march the local model of low, small sleighs usually drawn by one or two Panje horses proved to be the only effective means of transportation. The large sleighs supplied by the German Army were too heavy and far too wide for the narrow tracks made by native sleighs. Moreover the harness of the Panje horses which had to be used in this emergency was suitable for only limited loads. Despite very difficult terrain conditions the rocket launcher batteries reached the city in time to relieve it. On the other hand, four medium howitzers drawn by heavy German horses never reached their destination.
There was not a single German military agency in Russia which was not forced to employ Panje vehicles or columns during winter, not even excepting the Luftwaffe. German mechanization had not made sufficient progress to cope with the Russian, mud or terrain conditions in winter. As a result German motor vehicles were incapable of replacing native means of transportation despite the fact that the latter were "a century behind the times."

http://www.history.army.mil/books/ww...mprov/ch05.htm

JCFalkenbergIII · #**157** (**permalink**) August 11th, 2008, 07:04 PM

~~Mortman2004~~ · #**158** (**permalink**) August 11th, 2008, 07:20 PM

Damm Reb with a pipe KNOW it all lol

JCFalkenbergIII · #**159** (**permalink**) August 13th, 2008, 06:05 PM

Naw. Not me LOL. Just years of experience

JCFalkenbergIII · #**160** (**permalink**) August 13th, 2008, 06:29 PM

"For the Krauts, confusion mounted to panic. They had been forced to blow most of the Rhine bridges to prevent seizure by American forces driving down the river's west bank. Trapped, the Nazis fled without knowing where to flee. Air observers reported German columns retreating in opposite directions. Gasolineless Wehrmacht columns, moving in charcoal burning vehicles, horse and oxen-drawn carts, or marching afoot, were overtaken by swift armoraiders."

Lone Sentry: Terrify and Destroy: The Story of the 10th Armored Division -- WWII G.I. Stories Booklet

JCFalkenbergIII · #**161** (**permalink**) August 14th, 2008, 08:26 PM

"At the beginning of the war in Europe, all divisions had two Sanitaets Kompanies. At the end only the armored and mountain divisions had two each, but the Corps Surgeon had under his control one Sanitaets Kompanie for use where needed. When two Sanitaets Kompanies were available, two Hauptverbandplatzen were often established. In the beginning of an offensive, one Sanitaets Kompanie, horse-drawn, was placed only three or four kilometers behind the battle line to receive casualties. The other Kompanie, motorized, was held in reserve to be used after substantial gains had been made. Then, if further gains were made and the Hauptverbandplatz was required farther forward, the motorized Kompanie moved, leaving its patients to be taken over by the animal-drawn Kompanie. The patients of the animal-drawn Kompanie were left to be taken over by a Feldlazarett. Thus there were often two divisional units performing surgery ahead of the Army's most forward Feldlazarett. With a large-scale offensive division, army, and army group hospitals might all perform primary surgery only on the less seriously wounded, putting aside the intra-abdominal and intra-cranial wounds in favor of those who were more likely to live and return to full duty. "

http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksd...dices/appd.htm

JCFalkenbergIII · #**162** (**permalink**) August 14th, 2008, 08:46 PM

"TAC pilots had destroyed 919 trucks and 775 horse-drawn vehicles. In a little more than 30 days, 9000 pieces of enemy transportation had been marked off the books."

Lone Sentry: Achtung Jabos! The Story of the IX TAC -- WWII G.I. Stories Booklet

Za Rodinu · #**163** (**permalink**) August 14th, 2008, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JCFalkenbergIII

...might all perform primary surgery only on the less seriously wounded, putting aside the intra-abdominal and intra-cranial wounds in favor of those who were more likely to live and return to full duty. "

Oops!

JCFalkenbergIII · #**164** (**permalink**) August 14th, 2008, 08:53 PM

Kinda sad for the "Greatest army in History" huh?

JCFalkenbergIII · #**165** (**permalink**) August 15th, 2008, 03:05 AM

A very intersting read about the state of affairs of the German medical services. Not so Modern or the "Greatest" either.

JCFalkenbergIII · #**166** (**permalink**) August 15th, 2008, 05:19 PM

CIVIL PROTECTION AGAINST GAS WARFARE IN ENEMY COUNTRIES

It is reported that the following antigas equipment is available for the protection of horses in the German Army:
(1) A horse gas mask, with two containers, model 41. This protects horses and mules against all gases affecting the respiratory organs. The life of the container is several hours, depending on the concentration of gas and the nature of the animal's work. The containers can be readily changed.
(2) A pair of horse goggles, model 41, to be worn with the mask to protect the eyes from spray.
(3) A set of hoof covers, model 41, in three sizes, to protect the lower part of the leg on contaminated ground. The front leg covers are shorter than the hind ones.
(4) A supply of horse decontamination material. All of the above articles are carried in one special carrier

Protection of Horses, WWII Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 17, January 28, 1943 (Lone Sentry)

lwd · #**167** (**permalink**) August 16th, 2008, 12:12 AM

Back in the 60's a surplus store near us had horse gas masks for sale... US issue.