Why didn't the Wehrmacht equipped its troops with winter clothings during Operation Barbarossa?

Question

Please answer my other questions too. Cheers :=)

Answer 1

Barbarossa started weeks behind schedule due to the failure of the British conquest. As was mentioned previously, the Germans planned on taking Russia before the winter set in. The other problem was that they were outrunning their supply lines and therefore had trouble getting supplies to the troops.

Answer 2

The Germans believed they would have no trouble subduing the Russians and that supply lines would be opened up in time to cloth the occupying forces during the long winter. The Germans were behind schedule, had insufficient food fuel and bullets to sustain themselves without a very significant supply train. That supply route never developed and in fact, much of the German army found itself cut of and surrounded.

The Russian winter that had crucified Napoleon played into
the Russians hands and probably killed or disabled as many Germans as did Russian bullets.

BUT there is little doubt that if the German military command had had its way, Barbarossa may well have succeeded.

Its interesting to speculate what would have happened had Barbarossa gone as planned. The US and its allies would still have won the war, but it would have taken perhaps another 5 years. Stalin would have died and there would have been no cold war. There would not be communist Cuba and perhaps not a Communist China. The world would be a much different place. Five more years of fighting might have depleted France, for example that there would have been no need for the US to get involved in Vietnam.

All just speculation of course, but it is interesting to see what happens when an Army doesn't have sufficient food or clothing.

Answer 3

1. Optimisim, before the Russian offensive in 41, Germany was nearly untouchable with its Blitzkrieg warfare. However, they went into Russia overconfident and unprepared and undermanned (Hitler sent troops right before Barbarossa to Greece to bail out the Italians). The invasion began in June and within the first 3 weeks they had covered 500 miles. Winter came early in 41, caught the Germans by surprise. Also, remember the long distance the Germans were from Germany during Babarossa, this meant longer supply lines. This certaintly played a major role.

Answer 4

There are 2 fundamental reasons that I am aware of:

1) Blitzkrieg economy: Rather than put the country on total war footing and devoting economic production to the war, Germany ran what they called the blitzkrieg economy. They'd build up a stock of supplies and weapons before a major campaign and then go back to consumer goods so that the Germans at home wouldn't have to ration or forego their comforts. This led to them being undersupplied for a long campaign until after 1941.

2) Hubris: The German High Command, and in particular Hitler, had such a low opinion of Soviet capabilities they fully expected the Soviets to capitulate and be defeated before winter. Unfortunately, the invasion got off to a late start because Hitler hemmed and hawed a bit over whether or not to invade the UK and also because of the Balkan campaign in Yugoslavia and Greece. Mussolini needed to be bailed out of trouble in Greece and a coup in Yugoslavia turned out the German-friendly government.

Answer 5

Rail networks were a target from very early in the war and in one raid railway yards were hit by bombers targetting stores heading for the eastern front.Prior to the start of the war in the east material had to be concentrated.It is unlikely that the British knew about the coming attack on Russia but a routine bombing raid on railway yards and lines destroyed a lot of uniforms and materials.Hitlers arrogance is not the answer as once the campaign started repeated the bombings increased of any factories producing clothing material

Answer 6

Same reason that US troops are poorly equipped in all of their current ventures. Bad organisation.

In the military there are three levels of this :
1. Snafu - Situation normal, all f**ked up
2. Tarfu - things are really f**ked up
3. Fubar - F**ked up beyond all recognition

This has been the case since war was invented, and the reason is simple, who starts wars ? And who fights them ?

If the people that started the wars were ever involved in the execution of them, there would be two main changes :
1. There would be a lot less wars
2. The troops would be much better taken care of.

Answer 7

In March 1941 Germany made a settlement with Yugoslavia for friendship and non-attacking.That settlement on twenty seventh of March 1941 replaced into rejected by ability of the recent, defense force Yu authorities. That journey delay the attack of u.s. for more beneficial than a month, because Germany on sixth of April attacked Yugoslavia. After Hitlers attack of Russia on 22th of June 1941, Yugoslavian countries first in Europe rose up adverse to Germany, on 4Th of July 1941 - The day of The Warrior. Yugoslavian countries - Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, Macedonians, Montenegro's gave a million.seven-hundred.000 victims in WW2. Above reported activities in the back of agenda Hitlers plans for "blitzkrieg".

Answer 8

Because Hitler had such an easy victory in the West that he thought the Russian campaign would be over before winter.
Unfortunately he had to start it some weeks late because his Italian allies were having great difficulties in Greece so he had to delay his invasion of Russia while he sent troops to help them.

Answer 9

Mostly it was arrogance. They were convinced they would be victorious before winter arrived. By they time they accepted the reality of the situation it was too late to distribute clothing in a timely manner.

And for the record, they did come pretty close to pulling it off, but just not close enough.

Answer 10

A lot of reasons, but the main one being that Hitler and the German High command was so arrogant that they forgot the lessons of history and believed that the conquest of Russia would be over before the winter set in and thus there would be no need for them.