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Episode 9: "Why We Fight" - Germans Marching into Capitivity

posted 8 years ago by eThink
15 replies | jump to latest

The American Army is driving in both lanes down what appears to be a modern autobahn.

The American Army is fully mechanized with a wide range of military vehicles. The German Army is portrayed as having no mechanized vehicles, only horse-pulled wagons.

I do not know how accurate this scene is.

Here is a video, from May 1945, of German military (Heer, Luftwaffe, SS) units marching into captivity in Czechoslovakia. Notice the wide range of vehicles

https://www.facebook.com/Battlefieldgroningen/videos/1702515376684422/

The wide variations of uniforms worn in this real video is very similar to the portrayal in Band of Brother

[–] jpmkam-1 8 years ago

The point that David Webster was making when he screamed "...say hello to General Motors and Ford..." was that the although the German armed forces had military troop and equipment carrying vehicles, they had nowhere the number of vehicles that Allies pocessed, and relied on horses for a large number of transporting their troops, equipment and artillery movement needs.

[–] Hotrodder 8 years ago

The irony being that German troops were very familiar with Ford and GM products anyway as they used many made by both in their own army, manufactured at Ford and GM's German plants.
Yes, they used horses, most armies of WW2 did except for the British (and Commonwealth) and US Armies. In any case German industry couldn't hope to keep up with the USA's prodigious production and with the attrition rate its army's vehicles were suffering.

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[–] nickm2 8 years ago

I have to add that most of the GM vehicles the German Army ended up using were captured from France & ESPECIALLY Large numbers were captured in Russia.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] Hotrodder 8 years ago

I don't think I agree, Nick. The main GM products used by the German armed forces was the Opel Blitz:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Blitz
They captured some French and British (Bedford) GM vehicles but not that many AFAIK. The GMC 6x6 truck wasn't supplied to Russia in large numbers but the corresponding Studebaker truck was and these are rarely seen in German service. There seem to be few ex-Soviet army trucks used by the Germans in photos I've seen.

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[–] nickm2 8 years ago

Per a few memoirs I read during the waning days of the Germans 'offensive' portion of the war in the east (The Crimea & the push to the Caucasus as told in "in deadly combat"; footsteps of the hunter) made mention of how easy it was to 'salvage' Russian GM & Ford trucks & how numerous they were.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] Hotrodder 8 years ago

I'm forgetting the numerous CMP (Canadian Military Pattern) vehicles supplied to the Russians which were of course Canadian built GM and Ford trucks- my bad! They certainly would have been useful to the Germans as many components- engines, etc were the same as in the German built Opels and Fords. I can't say I've seen many photos of CMP vehicles in German service on the Eastern Front though. I was being a little inaccurate yesterday too as the Germans captured thousands of vehicles from the British in the Battle Of France many of which were Bedfords (British GM), which although most had had their engines seized to immobilise them were easily repaired at the GM plant at Antwerp by simply dropping in another GM straight six.
Of course the standard Russian GAZ army truck was simply a licence built Ford too, a copy of the Ford AA and AAA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Military_Pattern_truck

Ford licensed the manufacture of the Model A and AA to a variety of nations, notably the Soviet Union. More than 985,000 GAZ AAs were built in USSR from 1932 to 1950. The GAZ version had a cargo capacity of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb). A model with stronger 50 HP engine and wartime simplifications is often named GAZ–MM, after the engine.[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_AA

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[–] DariusStrain 8 years ago

In one of his books Donald Burgett, from the A co of 101st, describes how the Germans marched home in formation happily singing songs.

[–] Citizenright1 8 years ago

I read somewhere that half of the German transport was still horses at the end of the war. When I saw that scene I presumed they were referring to that.

[–] 0DegreesKelvin 8 years ago

They couldn't compete with American industry. While the Nazis occupied a huge area of Europe and made incredible machines, their output in numbers of vehicles wasn't anywhere near American output. During the war Pittsburgh, which is not a big city, produced more steel than Germany and Japan combined. Imagine the numbers from all steel-producing cities throughout the country.

[–] ae36 8 years ago

Some very valid points being made here but what a lot of people are over looking is the acute fuel shortage.

As the Germany retreated out of Russia and all across Europe after D-Day they lost access to major oil fields.

All the vehicles in the world won't do you much good if you don't have the fuel to run them.

AE36

[–] 0DegreesKelvin 8 years ago

Good point, I forgot about that. Weren't the Germans working on a synthetic fuel but just too late in the war? Or maybe it got bombed into oblivion.

[–] nickm2 8 years ago

Germany pretty much had to rely on synthetic oil from coal from the start--as I understood it, the majority of Germany's fuel came from that source. The refineries (and the power grid AND the trains/rail system that carried the coal to the powerplants) were THE choke point target that people thought Schweinfurt was.

Why can't you wretched prey creatures understand that the Universe doesn't owe you anything!?

[–] greg-goremykin 7 years ago

The vast, vast majority of the Heer walked, with millions and millions of horse's used for transport of weapons like anti-tank guns, AAA, non-motorized assault guns, etc.. The panzer, panzergrenadier, and fallschirmjaeger units were the tip of the spear, but they were relatively extremely few in number. Trucks were much more used for moving supplies to the front than transporting men; landsers moved as they did since the days of the Napoleonic wars, or even back to ancient Roman legionaries, on their feet.

[–] b-rad 7 years ago

The German army had a larger proportion of horses than any other major European army, except perhaps for the Russians. This surprises many, given that the Germans developed mechanized warfare to a high degree by 1939. But much of their logistical train was horse-drawn.

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[–] AardvarkRatnik 7 years ago

Antony Beevor's books Stalingrad and Berlin cover this issue well, there's a reference in the latter about how as the Red Army approached Berlin, Wehrmacht units were being taken to the front line in captured Polish horse wagons.