1935 Germany. Why horse drawn artillery and supply wagons?

[swampyankee]

no, but it does say that the germans employed 2.75 million horses, which was the largest contingent of any combatant. The Russians are thought to be around the 2 million mark. in '39 thye US still had 0.5 million on the books, as did the French in '39

I remember reading that the Soviet Army, before WW2 started, was trying to motorize its transport, possibly just because they felt it was part of the cult of socialist modernism.

As an aside, one of my high school teachers served in the US Army's horse cavalry before WW2. If I recall, his commanding officer was some guy named Patton.

 

[fastmongrel]

a 5/8s track or 11/16ths track?

Shouldnt that be a 0.625 track or 0.686 track.

 

[Juha]

Finns lost 7.200 horses during the Winter War (30.11.39 - 13.3.40) and 15.000 during the Continuation War (25.6.41 - 4.9.44), one of which was the horse of my father's homefarm, (or more exactly that of my great-uncle and my great-father) which was badly wounded in shell-fire and put to death. They got one war-booty ex-Soviet horse as a compensation.

The Finnish InfDiv had 15 000 men, 3500 horses and only 100 motorvehicles.

 

[tomo pauk]

Most armies knew that in the 1920s and early 30s. The problems came in trying to A.) pry money out of the treasury in peacetime in any ONE year (governments rarely look at costs over a 5 or 10 year period) to buy a large number of trucks and supporting infrastructure. B.) when the fertilizer hit the oscillating air handler, there was often not enough time (or money) to tool up enough factories ( or workers) to build the needed number of trucks in the time needed.

Took me a short while to understand the bolded part

 

[Shortround6]

As a hint to what was going on in WW I a book on war time use of the "Caterpiller tractor" (a brand name) built by Holt manufacturing and other during WW I for military use show the US government received 2081 assorted Holt tractors, the British got 1051, the French got 370 and the Russian got 80. The US government also received 4689 10 ton and under tractors built under Holt patent license and under Holt supervision. Company's working with Holt included Reo, Maxwell, Federal, Interstate and Chandler.
Some of the tractors enclosed the engine in an armored box although the driver was in the open.

The benefits/advantages of mechanical traction were well known. The cost of equipping a large army with mechanical transport was also very high and needed to be phased in over a number of years. With the peace movements of the 1920s and the up and down economy very little was spent on armed forces for a number of years. Throw in the great depression and most countries didn't start spending money to modernize/re-equip (aside form small experimental projects) until the mid to late 30s.

 

[davebender]

This is getting ridiculous.

I am simply attempting to determine whether the comment about too many different types of German partially tracked vehicles concerned purpose built combat vehicles such as Sd.Kfz.7 or cargo trucks with tracks ILO rear wheels (i.e. Maultier).

 

[fastmongrel]

This is getting ridiculous.

I am simply attempting to determine whether the comment about too many different types of German partially tracked vehicles concerned purpose built combat vehicles such as Sd.Kfz.7 or cargo trucks with tracks ILO rear wheels (i.e. Maultier).

Sd.Kfz.7 was in no conceivable way a combat vehicle it was designed as a medium motor towing vehicle.

 

[parsifal]

This is getting ridiculous.

I am simply attempting to determine whether the comment about too many different types of German partially tracked vehicles concerned purpose built combat vehicles such as Sd.Kfz.7 or cargo trucks with tracks ILO rear wheels (i.e. Maultier).

They are roughing you up a litle, but thenyou are making some pretty bullish claims.

There is a certain commonality in the types in that they use the same or simlar chassis, and factory space workers and raw materials used for the production of this tracked vehicle will be at the expense of producing a greater number of simple 2WD trucks. and it adds to the multiplicity of types which in turn affects serviceability and attrition rates.

this is not a combat type. Its a soft skinned support vehicle designed to do the same job as a regular truck, except that it has off road capability. in effect, i will grant you that this vehicle might end up in the firing line than a truck not able to go where it can, but I dont think that this means this is a vehiclke designed to be pout in harms way

 

[Shortround6]

This is getting ridiculous.

What was ridiculous was:

"Half Track vs 3/4 track for dummies." and the following pictures which had nothing to do with " the comment about too many different types of German partially tracked vehicles concerned purpose built combat vehicles such as Sd.Kfz.7 or cargo trucks with tracks ILO rear wheels"