From: Stephen Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Wed Feb 23 2005 - 19:02:40 PST
A bit more historical background on Third Reich industry and one of the
major reasons for its defeat. If you are bored by history, I suggest
hitting the Delete button instead of going further into this email :-)
Contrary to popular understanding, the Third Reich was overall a highly
inefficient government. Effective, yes, but that can not be confused
with efficiency. And we should all be thankful for this because that
was its major downfall. Motor vehicle production is a shining example
of this. Industrialized murder (genocide) is, oddly enough, one of the
only things it "got right" (from a purely technical standpoint) after
learning from years of inefficient killing.
One of the interesting problems of the Third Reich was that it was too
Capitalistic. Private enterprise, at least the bigger organizations
which could buy favoritism, was left pretty much on its own. As
oppressive and meddling as the Nazis were with their citizens, when it
came to industry it was pretty much "hands off". This was in part due
to the collaboration between big industry and Hitler during the last
few years before the Weimar Republic came to an end (thanks to the Nazi
Party). They funded and backed Hitler, and Hitler in turn rewarded
them by leaving them pretty much alone to fulfill lots and lots of
rearmament and construction projects. Each was happy with the other
and so the relationship continued to build upon its already steady
foundation.
The rearmament program of the 1930s was really just a peace time
procurement process sped up a little bit to compensate for the fact
that the Allies had stripped it of most everything after WWI.
Competing designs were developed and funded in parallel, purchased in
parallel, and fielded in parallel. Maximization of output,
standardization, and long term planning were nearly completely absent.
As a result when war came the German Army was very understrength in
nearly every aspect of modern warfare. But what it did have was either
technically superior or fielded in a superior way to its foes. So they
got by for a while.
When the military was enlarged in 1939 and 1940 the Germans did not
have either the stocks or the industrial capability of arming these new
forces. Hitler and his chief planners knew this ahead of time and that
is why Czechoslovakia was targeted in 1938. Not only was there the
socio-political reasons to take over the republic, but there was
military and industrial reasons too. Like a corporation in today's
global economy, when you can't do something on your own... acquire it
by hook or by crook. In this case it meant invasion and military
occupation instead of hostile corporate takeover. And it is fair to
say that the Germans might not have been able to conquer France without
the trucks, tanks, artillery, and small arms they got from Czech
factories. The contribution of conquered Czechoslovakia is one of the
most under appreciated parts of WWII.
What is amazing is that even though the shortcomings of the German
industrial base were very well known, little was done to fix it. When
the Germans did settle on standards, they were often sloppy and
inefficient compared to what was happening in the US and even the
Soviet Union. When a truck was built the individual manufacturer was
allowed to put in proprietary pieces instead of being forced to use
standardized components. That meant a motor pool might have had 2 or 3
trucks of a certain weight class, each of which had its own parts for
key things such as engines and transmissions. Yet functionally the
vehicles were identical from a military standpoint and therefore the
duplication of parts completely unnecessary. Doesn't make much sense,
does it?
After the losses of the first two years of the Eastern Front things did
start to change. Some material that had been made "the old fashion
way", like small arms, were now being made using things like stamped
metal parts. Different factories now were now able to produce the same
things from the same dies to the same specifications. Standards for
some things, such as vehicles, though never got to where they needed to
be because retooling such factories is not easy, especially when parts
still need to be produced for the existing fleet of vehicles.
In general it is very hard for industry to be retooled quickly, but to
do so under wartime conditions with heavy air raids, materials
shortages, wrecked infrastructure, and time pressure measured in
months... REALLY hard. The ineffective central control of resources,
weapons programs, and standardization just made a horrible situation
worse. And yet in spite of all of this (including increasing
destruction from the air) German war production INCREASED nearly every
single month from 1943 until right up until the end. On top of that
the newer designs were more efficient and usually far more effective
than anything they had produced before. In fact, many were more
effective than those of the nations it was at war with. But in war,
all else being equal the side with the largest quantity of toys wins.
And thanks to the US, Soviet, Canadian, and UK production in
particular... the Allies had the most toys. So let's all give a bit of
thanks for the central planners of the Third Reich having their heads
shoved firmly up their hind quarters :-)
Steve
On Feb 23, 2005, at 7:23 PM, david gudmunsen wrote:
> With reference to German trucks of World War 2. I have started to do a
> quick
> bit of research. Also further to Stephen Grammonts excellent letter
> outlining the way in which vehicles are acquired during war time.
>
> Whilst I have no doubt there may be problems with regard to the
> politics
> expressed on this site, it is never the less a mega site for old
> manufacturers across the world, loads of pics and plenty of names to
> research. So for what it is worth try
>
> http://www.autogallery.org.ru/gothers.htm
>
> Best regards from David Gudmunsen
>
>
> on 2/23/05 02:20, Stephen L Dussetschleger at dussetschleger@juno.com
> wrote:
>
>> Kinda wondering what trucks the German Army woulda used in WWII. I
>> know
>> of course about the Opel Blitz & also that there was a FORD factory
>> producing throughout the war basically a late 30's model of 1 1/2 ton
>> truck.
>> Particularly I am wondering if there were any DODGE or Chevrolet 1 1/2
>> ton cargo style trucks produced in Europe just before the war. Or
>> were
>> ones ther part of early lend-lease ?
>> Steve
>>
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