Re: How not to design ships

"TMOliver" <tmoliverjrFIX@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Alan Lothian" <alanlothian@xxxxxxx> wrote ...
Richard Casady
<richardcasady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 11:21:29 +0100, Alan Lothian <alanlothian@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

<in fact this was Andrew, but macht nichts since we are all on the same
side>

Come to think of it, German horses on the Eastern Front in WW2 were
probably
a bit nervous.

I believe there were about as many horses as men, at least before
attrition set in.

One figure I do know from stuff I wrote quite some time ago; can't give
you cites, too long back, but this was for Time-Life and they were
fanatic about fact checking. The Germans started 1942 on the Ostfront
with 625,000 fewer men than when they began Barbarossa. They were also
160,000 (admittedly a suspiciously round number) down on horses and
other draft animals. (From the same piece, German industry had only
succeeded in replacing 10% of lost supply vehicles. Most of them lost
by wear and tear, rather than Soviet action, but still lost.)

And while it is true that horses make other horses, using methods
well-known and understood, the process is not cost-free and takes time.
Chrysler and others are whacking out 6x6s a lot faster than German
stables are producing workhorses, and the trucks only need feeding when
they are moving. A horse-drawn army (and the Heer was overwhelmingly
horse-drawn) faces enormous supply difficulties. And you can't even use
your new wonder nerve gases, because retaliation with such sweetness
and light as mustard and lewisite wll wipe out all your transport.


I forget the actual numbers, something in the vicinity of 1,000,000 IIRC, of
the number of mules bred in the US and purchased for the US Army (and by UK
purchasing agents). Mules were successfully (and necessarily) employed in
the CBI and Italy, but were less successful in the SWPacific. All those
Jeeps were grand, but every now and again victims of terrain. Both the
British and the US Army kept around"pack" artillery, ours a 75mm designed to
be broken down into loads for mules (along with the 90mm mortar and
baseplate).

Used extensively in Burma I believe. Knew a character who served
there in charge of a mule train.

Eugene L Griessel

Consider the Malevolent Universe Theory: it really IS out to get you!
.

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