Re: Europe-NG diesels and re-gauging passenger cars

Economics.

It was one more thing German industry had to produce for the war on the Eastern Front. With steel already in short supply for weapons production and the rail lines in the Fatherland taking a beating from Allied bombing, it placed further strain on a system that could not keep up at it was.

The Blitzkrieg, a term the Germans never used themselves, was in many ways a myth. At it's peak, the Wehrmacht was only 20% mechanized. The vaunted infantry had to march hundreds of miles to catch up to the speeding tank columns. The supply chain often was horse drawn wagons.

Tanks have to have infantry support and supplies. Non-mechanized infantry and supply columns limited the effectiveness of the German Panzers.

American industrial capacity/production did as much if not more to defeat the Axis Powers than the Allied military forces. The U.S. replaced what the Germans/Axis destroyed. The Axis could not replace what the Allies destroyed.

(Sorry. I teach military history.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2016 07:48PM by kcsivils.