Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "German Logistics (or lack of) in WW2 Eastern Front | TIK Q&A 11" video.

@VT-mw2zb The Ju-52 fleet BROKE DOWN -- entirely -- while keeping the panzers rolling. That event triggered Hitler's visit to the front. THAT'S why is was there telling Guderian to head south. The Luftwaffe could no longer bail out Guderian's spearhead. (!!!) This has been one of the biggest secrets of the Nazi army. Even years after the war, Germans kept their mouths shut.
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The only gambit that had a chance: ships in the Baltic change the numbers for AGN. Barges in the Black sea change the number for AGS. BTW, Hitler was wrong, way wrong. AGN HAD to be the priority -- BECAUSE it could be supported by Baltic shipping -- especially to include barges. Yes, the Krauts DID use barges -- both north and south, too. However, they did so in a most trivial fashion. So much so that most histories don't even mention it having even happened. It is critical to Nazi success to reduce the scope of the mega-campaign. Once Leningrad is captured, it becomes a port for Germany. Leningrad is the CENTRAL point for Soviet heavy industry -- in 1941. It's where Soviet heavy tanks were designed and produced. It's where the Russian rail system started. (British imports, later the French...) It's a critical city for the Soviet economy for just this reason. Once Leningrad is taken 4th Panzer Army is permanently released to AGC. All of this had to happen at lightning speed -- only possible if the Baltic sea link is employed. AGS has the same dynamic -- logistically. However, Stalin made sure that Ukraine had NOTHING. The entire 'southern orientation' was flatly wrong. 1st Panzer Army should've been allocated to AGC. Yes, it needed all four panzer armies... all of the trucks to speak of. Slid past, steam locomotives need water tanks -- just all over. Most trains could not travel 100kM without getting watered up... usually much less. Freights ( known as 'drags' in the industry ) suck down water. (It's the weight.) The Germans critically needed Diesel-electric locomotives at the front -- for they would not need so much support. They would also burn heavy middle distillate (ie Diesel fuel) that no others could use -- and which coal-to-liquids plants produce in massive amounts. The entire campaign was based upon emotion. Crazy, it was. Hitler lost the moment he crossed the frontier. You can't win a motorized war without oil. Period.
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@gagamba9198 Stalin was so short of locomotive power and everything else that his Siberian rescuers had to march through the snow for many, many days towards Moscow. A LOT of the loco stats are total frauds. Stalin PROHIBITED accurate public statistics. Every now and then a statistician didn't get the message. He'd soon be relocated to the GULAG. Stalin prohibited any national census after 1938. What does that tell you? You can't use ANY Soviet statistic. Every last one is a lie. Truth was prohibited. The US provided about 2,000 full-line locomotives to the USSR -- mostly Baldwins. They were a totally de-bugged design which had been rolling on US & Canadian rails for years. The Soviets loved them so much that they stayed on the rails until the 1960s. A rail tourist discovered where they ended up by accident. During the Yeltsin days, a Westerner could finally take a tourist trip -- up way north -- to nearby the Finnish border. And it was up there our rail buff saw hundreds upon hundreds of retired steam locomotives -- with the Baldwins really catching his eye... him being a real expert on steam locomotion. This ice-yard fleet was there because it would obviously never be nuked. Norway and Finland were right over the border. By the 1990s, everything there was a hunk of rust -- being so close to the Arctic Ocean, too. Zukov called out these locomotives as an essential ingredient in the Red Army's march West. Pilots regarded locomotives as sitting ducks. They were easy to pop full of holes -- and you just can't get away with a cheap patch. Once a boiler receives that kind of 'attention' it's RUINED. You need to build another machine. Soviet locomotive losses were horrific. Their exhaust can be seen for miles -- every machine a bullet magnet. Follow the rail lines and hunt for smoke and steam. How easy can it get?
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If you did hard enough, you'll run across footage of the USA dropping new locomotives onto standard gauge tracks in (French) Northwest Africa. The original track was narrow gauge everywhere before the US showed up. Such track was totally useless for hauling military freight -- such as Sherman tanks. The re-building of that net didn't stop until Winter rain came and the resulting mud was astounding. Rain and mud are the real reasons that post-Torch operations bogged down. The mud was so bad -- no paved roads -- that even American trucks and tanks bogged down. ('high-centered' was the term of art) Machines would simply settle down so low that the mud reached up to the belly. When the Spring came, the Americans gave up on their railroad project as laying virgin railroads was too slow and too expensive.
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@garthflint You are mistaken about the French rail net. The Nazis LOOTED IT something crazy. They even stole the sleepers/railroad cross-ties. Some of the rails & ties were re-used within France and Belgium to sustain German war-critical transport. But the French rail grid was so huge and modern that no small amount was shipped off into Germany, Poland and points east. The French steel industry was cranking out replacement rails in a fury. As more and more German industry shifted to war production, Speer forced the French and the Belgians into producing war-support materials that we'd all call dual-use -- with rails right at the top of the list. Flint, my father landed on D-Day and soon enough was re-tasked to just drive a GMC truck. (2.5 ton) He was taken out of the line when Monty requested/demanded 2,000 GMC trucks for his Market-Garden operation. Those trucks were provided. My father's regiment was given instant leave -- back at the tank farm. There never was a fuel crisis for the armies. Rather, Monty took Bradley's transport away. So, as you posted, it just filled up the tankage nearby the beaches. BTW, PLUTO turned out to be a bust. DUKWs saved the day.
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@VT-mw2zb It's even worse with cross-ties// sleepers. You can't use poor lumber. Yet, a steam locomotive with a military plow can rip up miles and miles of sleepers and not break a sweat. This gambit dates the American Civil War -- with photos of the period showing such improvisations.
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@helicongremory8480 The cargo ships of the period were ALL coal burners.
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@Rohilla313 That reason was KIEV. He lost so many troops there that he issued a personal general order to his top brass to stay out of major cities. This sentiment is also why Adolf was not enthused about marching through Moscow. He'd read of Napoleon's debacle.
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