Feldgrau.net

A large excerpt from WW2 Foreign military studies 1945-1954 manuscript P 82 by Carl Wagener which was originally a report submitted by general Hube to Hitler the day before he crashed. Part 1: "P 082 Against the incessant russian attacks along the entire front throughout the year , the field fo...

???? Can you point out another example that closely paralles this? If you can't it clearly was not normal. Whether it would cause prohibitive problems or not is another matter. It's difficult to prove that but given what I've read it seems likely. Being able to move supplies all the way up to the d...

A spearhead doesn't do much good without a spear shaft. If the Panzergroups reach Moscow with inadequate support what does it acomplish other than the destruction of said Panzergroups? It is the breakthrough by the mobile formations which forces the enemy back which makes the job of the infantry mu...

lwd wrote: But were there forces massing on it already? Ones that likely would be commited to an offensive against said flank?

If an opponent has reserves, he can threaten the lengthening flank during a deep advance. There are ways to deal with that.

Hardly a joke but it certainly was a factor and could have been whenever the assault was launched. The issue is that in the fall there is a high probability of bad weather which would cause serious problems, particularly in a country with a lack of hardened roads. That is why nobody in his right mi...

If I was the proponent you would be correct but I'm simply calling your assumption that they are adequate to question. Certainly there are numerous references to their being supply issues at that point in the campaign though. Supply issues there certainly where but not to the extent of preventing a...

Of course they didn't prevent the above operations they just guaranteed that they would fail. Clearly inadequate logistics shoud preclude some operations. Rommel's adventures in Africa are a nother mark on the wall. It boils down to two qeustions actully. 1) was the German log network adequate to s...

No it doesn't, not unless PGR 2 was the only force that would be drawing suppl from that line for the duration of the campaign. The Panzergroups are the main striking force and it is their ability to attack which is decisive. PGR 2 would have been better off atacking east when it started south. Als...

Actually you are the proponent of there being no supply problem. As the proponent the burden of proof is on you. That's the way it works on reasonable forums. The "supply problems in august preventing any offensive" is a bit of a straw man as well. The problems don't appear to have been a...

Hand waving you are good at that I'll admit. It's not "normal" to start and advance in depth with your railheads as few and as far away as they were at the time is it? Nor when the rail ines themselves are being converted and it's necessary to tranship all the loads from one guage rail to...

Not really, at least in and of itself. But it does , also because PGR 2 was more difficult to supply in an avance south than in an advance east where it could be supported from the Roslavl-Brjansk road and the railroad running from Gomel to Brjansk. The advance south also put PGR2 in a more unfavor...

[Weren't the first big drafts of replacements sent to the front in the latter part of August or September? Even a week or two would allow one to service some of the vehicles and allow some of those reparied or replaced to join their units. Perhaps "back up to strength" is something of an ...

Indeed and you have hardly supported it. It is those that pretend that there were prohibitive supply problems in august peventing any offensive east that would have to prove these by data about amounts of ammo, fuel etc.. present in the area of AGC. How strange that these supposedly prohibitive pro...

Not in every case. But if the above is accurate why didn't the Germans try to break out of Stalingrad or succeed in the Battle of the Bulge? Certainly doesn't help to be out of ammo, or fuel, of food for that matter. Even worse to be out of all of them. Fortunately , that was not the situation in 1...

Nothing "magic" about it. There is clearly a bottom limit below which a world war 2 division was simply not capable of operating effectively. As the available ammo increased it's would approach some asymtopical limit. Some where along this curve would be the there's a point at which the c...