Originally posted by Paul McNeely:
On the historical accuracy of supplying a Pz Korps by air while it is on the move.
I would agree with Ed on this one. I have no trouble imagining them doing so when it static defends as was done on more than one occasion (perhaps not with Pz Korp but certainly with other units) but on the move it becomes hard to imagine that they would be able to ship in sufficient fuel. No cargo plane in WW2 was like a hercules where you could roll on the tanker truck and then pallet drop it out the back. The only way to ship fuel was by barrel or jerry can and that is not efficient, I don't recall seeing a good cargo door on a Ju52 myself. So load/unload times would be a pain. The allies drop gliders were infact much better but of course need a lot of open space to land in.
Exactly. That's it. This was my problem with this "tactic". During the previous debate, several examples of the use of air-supply were mentioned, but *none* of them involved a full strength armored corps engaged in near constant movement and combat. They were all static operations supplying forces, not all motorized, that remained in defensive positions and didn't move. The movement part is especially important.
Because the Stalingrad pocket was fairly large at the beginning the Germans were able to build good airport runways (at least 3) for the incoming planes, yet the operation still failed. Now imagine a unit on the move. You can't build runways, you have to use grass landing strips in good terrain that may or may not be within the territory currently occupied by your corps. Because you're moving, you'll have to abandon that grass strip within hours of starting to use it. Air drops aren't much better. The biggest problem with air drops being you couldn't use air drops for all the types of supplies needed. No one in WWII had really useful air transports planes in numbers. No forward or rear opening plane for easy off loading. Fuel alone would be a major problem. Consider the fact that the forces are all motorized units. Let's say 2 tank divisions and one motorized infantry division. According to this page,
http://mops.uci.agh.edu.pl/~rzepinsk/1939/html/skladang.htm
that adds up to ~10,500 vehicles requiring fuel. Imagine flying in thousands of jerry cans, I mean *thousands* of them.
Also keep in mind the enemy. Not just the enemy in the air but the problem of protecting the landing sites from long range artillery fire. Can a moving corps protect a large enough pocket to prevent long range artillery fire into the center? I doubt it, after all, if the unit is moving the target will be in the center of the pocket for only a very short amount of time before forward progress moves the landing strip closer to the rear.
If artillery doesn't help, then air power may. The corps, being in enemy territory, has more enemy air forces closer to it than friendly planes. Some attacks are bound to get through, as happened to German forces advancing on Moscow in late '41.
1. The effect of readiness increase for motorised units is cut in half or in quarter per ton of air lifted supply to reflect the difficulty in moving fuel. I would penalise the attached tank battalions more than the core of the unit myself if that is possible.
2. Steal an effect from PACWAR and limit the max possible readiness from airlift to 50% which might be the best (if not the easiest) solution. The truth was that it was very difficult to bring in more than an absolute minimium by paradrop or cargo plane as no ones logistics net was designed to support air resupply.
I like both of these ideas. However, endorsing 2 more rules to restrict readiness might get us into yet more trouble with the give-us-our-SS-back crowd. <img src="smile.gif" border="0">
Of course there is another question. I, like most I suspect, tend to use airlifts during the blitzkreig period to keep my forward Pz divisions at a reasonable readiness. This is much the same as the question of wholly supplying it from the air since in both cases the question of historical accuracy comes up. Does anyone know if the German's did infact use their transport aircraft during this time to move supplies to the forward units? I've never thought to look myself...for me it is a game thing...I have the transport aircraft why not use them?
From what I've read it was done, but never to the point that those large forward elements could survive on airlift alone. Air supply, at least for WWII, augments ground supply, it doesn't replace it.
[ September 04, 2001: Message edited by: Ed Cogburn ]</p>
