WW2 Relative Production Costs

[Morshead]

Doing some research for a 1943 East-Front scenario I am wondering if anyone has any useful information to share as to relative production costs of armaments in Germany during the war - with particular emphasis on 1942/43 and 44?
Using a variety of sources - not all satisfactory but including stuff like Jentz and Carruthers I have - for instance -

StG III = RM 82,500
Pz III M = RM 103,163
Pz IV = RM 103,462
Pz V = RM 117,100
Pz VI = RM 250,800 (not confident of this last one)

I am particularly interested in the relative costs of panzer, SPW, and military trucks (Opel Blitz etc).

All for a good ToAW cause! If you can help - it would be great.

Morshead

[governato]

I like your approach, but I am surprised that the Pz V was only 10% more expensive than a Pz III...my suspicion is that RMs did not represent the real 'resources' cost of a tank or gun, especially with inflation And what 'd be the cost of an infantry squad in comparison? That is relevant for the Red Army where infantry units were starved of manpower in favor of factory workers and the support units of mobile forces. My suggestion 'd be to allow production changes of no more than 10-15% to keep it exciting, but still 'realistic'.

What I did for the Axis production options in my 'EF41-45' scenario was to go with 'weight', with an added cost placed on newer tank models (fancy alloys, more expensive ammos) and a discount for submarines tonnage (cheaper steel). For infantry vs guns/tanks conversion I assumed weight and manpower, including the extra support men/trucks for tanks and gun batteries (at 2-3x cost). I then used special off map unit to be disbanded into the replacement pool
depending on the TOs.

Also... GWITE has 'costs' for each equipment and that could be borrowed or used as a reference. I am away from my PC at the moment but I could check that in a couple weeks.

[USXpat]

Considerable effort was made to make the Panther easier to produce than earlier models. Production from March 42 forward came under Albert Speer. Concurrently, the tank program started making use of steadily increasing amounts of forced/slave labor. The Panther had reduced requirements of materials in which Germany was short.

[Morshead]

Guys - thanks for taking the time to post these replies. I thought my forum settings ensured I was being notified via e-mail of responses here - so didn't realise you had replied. I should have checked and come back. I'm very sorry.

The concept I've been working on is a divisional/regimental level what-if that breaks into the Eastern Front campaign in very late 1942 and asks whether Germany could have adjusted her strategic and industrial policies to have had a more meaningful chance of 'victory' after Stalingrad (or - stalemate despite Unconditional Surrender - bringing the Allies to negotiate).

Some examples of the assumed policy changes -

North Africa abandoned December 1943 - evacuated with the full assistance of Regia Marina/Aeronautica/Luftwaffe - and strategic defensive posture adopted in the Med.

A Speer/Guderian approach to panzer production is adopted from January 1943 - with all that this might entail - culling the plethora of types/spares - and an all-of-industry focus on 3 essential panzer types IV/V/VI (VI reluctantly) and StGIII production in 1943 - with the historic but FINITE production resources. All PzIV (and above) variants are deemed cancelled/curtailed post March 1943. In terms of relative production costs I had in fact applied BOTH a RM-cost relativity WITH a simple unit-weight cost relativity given that total ore and steel production capacity was finite. For example - according to Carruthers the RM-differential of a PzIII/PzV was 96,163/117,100 (so 0.821) while the weight-differential was 23/47t (so 0.449) - averaging these I come to a PzIII costing 65.5% that of a PzV - so a single Panther will be deemed to consume the production of 1.527 PzIII's. Comments/opinions - please yell loudly. Any view on whether efficiency-gains should be modelled (I am reluctant to overcook the German production capacity).

In terms of motorisation - work in progress but I am assuming - immediate cessation of ALL naval construction works(including U-Boats - yes controversial) - and production capacity turned to the full utilisation of the Wolfsburg Volkswagon capacity - and international production sites turned over to mass-production of drastically simplified production runs. Reorganisation of OoB of infantry-type formations such that partial-motorisation of individual (typically favoured) formations is curtailed in January 1943 -with the result that the Wehrmacht can a) repair existing Motorised ("Panzergrenadier") divisions and b) build exiting Jager-type formations into full-fledged Motorised divisions - with a standardised truck component - such that by late-43 the Wehrmacht could field 30 panzer divisions and 36 competent motorised divisions across Europe.

Governato - it would be a huge assistance if you could investigate the GWITE relative cost-base. I would greatly appreciate it.

[governato]

In this post HERE there are a couple of useful references and the approach I used in `East Front 41-45'...it is interesting that we considered similar approaches!

You should give some options to the Red Army too...

Will take a look at costs in WITE, give me a few days!

[golden delicious]

For game purposes I make costs of equipment directly tied to the equipment's capabilities. Otherwise there will be a "right" choice and it's not an interesting decision.