Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "Why No German Reinforcements at Stalingrad?" video.
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@David
Because of telecommunications security, the Axis Allied armies were actually getting their orders via the German net -- namely that of 6th Army -- which was actually operating as an army group in its own right.
Even though the Romanians and Italians were organized as organic armies, complete, they still had to co-ordinate with 6th Army -- even if -- on paper -- they were directly subordinate to Army Group B.
As a practical matter, these Axis armies were hugely passive. The krauts were STEALING their heavy weapons on a systemic basis. This was the exact inverse of the American scheme.
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The American supply system was so robust that entire Allied armies were supplied, off the cuff, based upon surplus// replacement heavy weapons. This is how the French 1st Army in the Rhone river valley came to be. It was originally intended to be just a corps of ex-territorial French troops ( read that to mean French led African colonial formations at the heart of de Gaulle's FFA ) As the American 7th Army drove up the Rhone, the local Frenchmen fell out to join their own reserve formations.
In this, the French entirely duplicated the Wehrkreis system -- which actually hails from Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. (1620s -- Thirty-Years War) [ Regiment = raised for the king ]
The US Army simply handed over all of the necessary weapons so as to re-create southern French infantry divisions. It didn't hurt that the 81mm mortar and the 155mm howitzer were French designs cloned by the Americans.
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The Ostheer systematically stole all of the PAK sent by Italy and Romania to their forces in the east. They KNEW that these armies had absolutely no defense against Soviet tanks.
THIS was the height of folly.
OKH knew all about all of this. The Axis armies had been bitching about weapons theft for just about forever.
OKH should've adopted the American system where everyone at the front is being given the same stuff. The Axis armies just didn't need that much stuff, either.
Absolutely no modern army replicates the folly of OKH.
BTW, because of the Wehrkreis system, the Stalingrad fiasco caused Hitler political troubles. He, essentially, promised that the divisions that had been destroyed in the kessel would not have to serve in the east again. They were re-raised and then sent down into Italy and Yugoslavia and even southern France. This is why the Italian occupation army looks like the Stalingrad kessel. (305,76,44, on over)
The 14p, 16p, ... et. al. also had a 'vacation' in Italy. ( Being posted to 10th Army was deemed a dream vacation from the war by German troops. ( It was common for German units to be posted way up the spine of Italy as reaction troops lest the British-Americans land more troops. Italian winters may be wet, but they're mild compared to Germany. )
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OKH failed to appreciate that Case Blue DEMANDED emphasis upon the rail net.
Germany didn't have the gasoline to support a truck fleet with that much 'reach.'
Even the Americans (1944-45) found that trucks can only take you so far. You must restore the rail net ASAP. The USA prioritized the rail link from Cherbourg to Paris, and even hauled British coal to Paris to get the train system back up and running, doing so with the Red Ball Express at one point. (!!)
"After a month of demining and repairs by American and French engineers, the port, completely razed by the Germans and the bombing, welcomed the first Liberty ships and became, until the victory of 1945, the largest port in the world, with traffic double that of New York.[45] It was also the endpoint of the gasoline which crossed the English Channel via the underwater pipeline PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean), and the starting point of the Red Ball Express, truck transport circuit to Chartres."
The German attempts at extending her Russian rail net were belated. The story is so embarrassing that you just about never read anything about it.
It's notable that the Nazis had access to French rail resources that could've entirely changed the picture. They refused to use them... probably as a matter of policy.
The massive Luftwaffe raids against Stalingrad were a triple crime: they consumed WAY too much fuel -- to no positive purpose. The raids destroyed the very assets that you'd think the Nazis would want for themselves. The raids provided the perfect terrain for the Soviet defense which would surely be a first class bitch. Lastly, they killed a lot of Russian civilians while providing absolutely no moral crisis for the larger Soviet Union.
The avgas consumed by the raids should've been given over to Ju-52 flights so that Army Groups A & B could roll on at exploitation speed -- taking critical objectives via motor-march -- as compared to fighting. This last gambit was what made Barbarossa so astonishing.
Army Group A was WAY TOO LARGE. 17th Army should've been reduced to a mountain corps, and given motorization -- say 2 mountain divisions and 1 jager division. The rest of that army should've been allocated to the main front -- 2nd Army in particular. A rump position west of the Kerch Strait would've sufficed. ( an infantry division or two being re-blooded )
1st Panzer Army should've given up most of its panzers to 4th and 2nd Panzer Armies -- and received GDm, 3m and 29m in exchange. You just don't need that many tanks, just motorized infantry. The bigger 1st Panzer Army gets, the harder it is to fuel up. It's destined to spend most of its time punching air. That had to be obvious.
All of these key decisions should've been made during the Halder era. He did more to advance the Allied cause than Adolf Hitler.
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