At the same time, the supplies and supplies of the German troops are also one of the many factors that need to be considered in logistics.
Due to the huge amount of activity of soldiers in the field army, the troops have many combat tasks and move long distances every day. Therefore, the German soldiers are regularly supplementing vitamins and oils.
This requires fresh vegetables, fruits, meat and other supplies.
In addition, German soldiers repeatedly made achievements on the front line. After each victory, they needed to improve their food to reward everyone. This required other foods such as sausage, beef, and rice.
During the Battle of France, which was less than six weeks old, the military trains of the entire Third Reich were running on the German-French railway at almost full capacity. This ensured that there would be no tragedy of large-scale material shortages on the front line.
Don’t underestimate the railway transportation resources occupied by these canned vegetables, fruits and vegetables.
Just take canned luncheon meat as an example. From the beginning to the end of the French War, Germany transported nearly 9 million cans of processed canned luncheon meat to the French front.
This is only the result of Germany's nearly 2 million troops in France, which reduced the supply of part of the second-line troops.
You know, many second-line troops at the back never enjoyed more than three cans of lunch meat per capita from the beginning to the end of the war.
For another example, the Siberian Railway built by the Soviets themselves has a length of 10,000 kilometers. Its maximum monthly transportation capacity in 1945 was only 1.35 million tons. This can be said to be the maximum transportation capacity of the railway in the early stage of World War II.
Therefore, it was not easy for these 9 million cans to be transported into France, where wars were still going on from time to time, during the war between Germany and France.
Of course, this also reflects the capabilities of the German logistics department from another aspect. If the rear department had not gone all out to ensure the supply of weapons, equipment, ammunition and supplies for the frontline troops, the German army would not have obtained it in such a short period of time.
Lower France.
Another pressure figure report given by the young officer was the huge consumption incurred to ensure the offensive speed of the fist force, that is, the German armored force.
The German transport troops were busy day and night, transporting 300,000 track parts, 50,000 engine wearing parts, 400 complete engines, and 450 gearboxes to the French front line. This ensured that there were more than 3,000 German tanks in France.
And the armored vehicles were able to rush forward and did not stagnate due to malfunctions.
Since Germany's own resources are limited, self-sufficiency and living space complement each other. If Germany wants to fight the war, it must meet the basic needs of the war through occupation.
To achieve this goal, Germany must develop a war economy.
As early as 1936, Reinhard explained the importance of war economy in a memorandum: If we cannot make Germany a military power as soon as possible, Germany will have no foothold.
One of the purposes of developing a war economy is to maintain the ever-expanding German mechanized forces. Reinhardt's own Reinhardt Consortium has been frantically refining coal into gasoline in the past 10 years, and did not hesitate to turn coal into gasoline factories.
The company has expanded its production capacity to 500,000 tons per year.
In order to save coal mine usage and support coal-to-oil production, Germany built 13 new hydropower plants in various places, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in disguise.
On the other hand, to achieve success on the future battlefield, it is indeed very important, even indispensable, to realize the motorization of supply troops.
But from a strategic perspective, its benefits are highly questionable.
According to the technical conditions in 1939, the carrying capacity of 600 trucks was equivalent to a double-track railway. In addition, comparing the actual load capacity, the consumption of cars in all aspects was greater than that of railways. Therefore, when the transportation distance exceeds 200 miles,
, the railway still has certain advantages.
This means that from an operational or tactical perspective, motorization is indeed necessary, but its impact on strategy is not great.
Moreover, no matter how hard we try, cars are unlikely to change, let alone replace, trains as the main means of transportation in Germany in the foreseeable future.?
However, Germany still made unremitting efforts to realize the motorization of troop transportation.
Thanks to the efforts of German engineers and workers, Romania's oil field production capacity doubled from 1935. More than 90% of the oil produced in a year was sent to Germany, and more than half of it was used for war supplies.
Germany's own North Sea oil fields were frantically over-exploited by Reinhardt, while replenishing front-line military supplies while reserving the excess for future expansion of a more powerful army, air force, and navy.
During this time and space, the supply of oil was in place, which greatly supported the continuous operation of German tanks and armored vehicles on the front line.
It was these tanks and armored vehicles that quickly overwhelmed the British and French troops on the front line, and their main forces were promptly eliminated at Dunkirk.
It can be said that Germany's industrial level during the war is still shocking.
Mercedes-Benz, also a subsidiary of the Rhine Consortium, has 290,000 male and female workers in its automobile production plants across the country as early as two years ago.
On BMW's engine production line, 170,000 people work around the clock under Speer's "three-shift system."
The factory of Reinhart's brother-in-law Krupp also has more than 200,000 employees at this moment.
What is remarkable is that with such a large number of workers, the Krupp factory produced weapons and equipment every day, which still could not meet the needs of the German army.
Therefore, the military factories of the Rhine Consortium also had factories to assist the Krupp Group in the military production that they were originally responsible for.
Fortunately, Reinhardt and Krupp are in-laws, and the two consortiums have been working closely together.
Otherwise, it is estimated that many arms merchants would rather delay the country's arms orders than cooperate with them by giving up orders to other peers to increase their performance.
Of course, in order to support the German army in France, the Third Reich not only mobilized 3,100 special trains to transport various strategic materials and ensured the German army's invincibility in France, the Air Force also dispatched 5,000 JU52 transport aircraft
, carried out major combat missions including paratroopers’ airborne landing in Belgium and Dunkirk, and arranged material supplies for paratroopers and part of the army.
Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that the German logistics department was fighting an invisible war for the German frontline troops.
These invisible efforts on the front line have also been highly praised by front-line troops.
Field Marshal Brauchitsch, Chief of Army General Staff, said when reporting the combat situation to Reinhardt: "There is no victory without logistical supplies."
Admiral Catherine also said in her report to Reinhardt, "If it were not for having the most professional logistics force in the world, the Imperial Air Force, the aviation batch dispatched in the French campaign, might have been delayed countless times."