High Tech German military

I just forgot to add, in the above text, the author seems to speak of the MG42 as an over-quality piece of equipement. Actually, that was not correct. The MG42 was design for fast production. It was the first MG to use press stamped steel.
The MG34 however, that's another matter. That was a gun that in the role it was used, it was (as someone put it) like using a Rolls Royce to do a taxi job.



Cheers...

 

"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."

German Horse Cavalry and Transport, U.S. Intelligence Bulletin, March 1946 (Lone Sentry)

 

Agreed.

 

So we agree on something... hum...


But the Germans late in the war would relly on railways too (the ones not bombed) to transport provisions and move men correct? What was the importance of the railway for the German army comparing to the horse? I know that when they started to back away from Russia in late 42, the proximity to Germany and their railway sistems greatly helped to secure the line as provisions could be brought faster and in more quantity.
What was the place of the horse in the German defensive battles?




Cheers...

 

One of the places for horses was for the transpotation of supplies and food. The railroads were very limited in being able to bring these supplies to the frontlines. Even when they were working and nearby. Horses have no need for a road or train tracks. Then there is the evactuation of wounded. And then movement of artillery among other uses that the German military had used them for.

 

Go back

 

hey Joe, I'm one of those people who thinks that the German Army was "way cool." All I see is a guy with an inferiority complex, probably about the American military, who pettily picks at any short coming of what was arguably the finest fighting force to ever march through the pages of history. The fact that the bulk of the German armed forces were horse drawn makes their heroic stand against superior numbers AND superior equipment even more astounding. I remember reading Bidermann's memoir of the eastern front, 132nd Infantry Division, the hardships endured and triumphed over by his company made Band of Brothers seem like a picnic.

 

"The shells just kept coming. At a 99th Division command post to the platoon's rear, a staff officer who had been told the Germans had just two horse-drawn artillery pieces in the vicinity shouted, "Christ, they sure are working those two poor horses to death!"

A favorite quote from a great book I own LOL.
The Longest Winter: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II's Most Decorated Platoon by Alex Kershaw

 

"smelling the decaying human and horse flesh after the massacre of the Falaise Gap, with what seemed like mile after mile of dead bodies and abandoned equipment, and being surprised that the Wehrmacht still had<BR>to rely so heavily upon horsedrawn supply wagons and gun limbers; on one occasion we fired HE shells from a concealed position upon a German supply column, scoring direct hits on two ammunition wagons which disintegrated in balls of fire, then driving over to examine the result _ by an odd quirk of human nature we were more saddened by the dead and dying horses than by the mangled human corpses we found there;"


http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/40/a4485440.shtml

 

I can relate about the horses, saddens me how many died in WWII.

 

"The troops pictures are named as the 3rd Recon Troop (prov), and were named as taking part in an action with US Rangers at Cisterna."

Though the US used some horses and mules in the war they did not use them to same massive degree as the German military nor for the same purposes.

 

The difference here is the US used horses because they decided they worked well in the immediate conditions, not because they had to.

 

In the battle for Monte Cassino the New Zeelanders relied on mules cause they managed to move better than the trucks and jeeps in that conditions.



Cheers...

 

Exactly T.A. .

 

"Horse-drawn Transport
German Divisional horse-drawn transport was designed to be as efficient as such vehicles could be. It was issued both to Infantry Divisions and to infantry corps supply columns on a definite scale and can be divided into two major types: battle transport (Gefechtstross) and support or supply transport.
The battle transport, issued to infantry formations down to platoon level, was intended for carriage of ready-to-use supplies and heavy weapons. The intended vehicles were modern, light and often steel-bodied. Mounted on pneumatic tyres, they comprised two-horse wagons (usually the Hf 7 or Stahlfeldwagen - Steel fieldcart - and various patterns of one and two-horse limber and trailer units. The most common were the If 8 Infanteriekarren, small load carriers with tarpaulin covers and capable of taking an AA machine gun mounting; and the two-horse MG Wagen 36 with its communications variants. These were true limbers carrying 2-3 men and coupled to two wheeled caissons containing guns, tripods and ammunition, or other equipment; they were issued to the heavy-machine gun sections using MG 34s and MG 42s. Typical allocations to a 1944 pattern infantry rifle company were: HQ one If8; each rifle Zug two If8; heavy machine gun Staffel one Hf7 and two If8.
The support vehicles were often of more archaic pattern dating back in some cases to WW I and included the very widely used Hf I light field cart, a wooden vehicle pulled by two horses and various limber and trailer combinations"

THE HORSE IN THE GERMAN ARMY IN WWII « War and Game

 

Good point TA!
How about this.....................



Fuel for the German War Machine!

 

The amount of feed and fodder needed for the huge amount of horses that the Germans used is just staggering. That and the other Axis countries too.

 

"The intended vehicles were modern, light and often steel-bodied. Mounted on pneumatic tyres, they comprised two-horse wagons (usually the Hf 7 or Stahlfeldwagen - Steel fieldcart - and various patterns of one and two-horse limber and trailer units."

IMO being steel bodied yet still having to be horse drawn does not smack me of being "modern" LOL.