"E. Barry Bruyea" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:37:50 -0000, "Keith Willshaw"
wrote:


"Geoffrey Sinclair" wrote in message
...
Michael Petukhov wrote in message ...


The Ford plant was hit, using a truck plants as an example
ignores the allies largely ignored such factories in their
target selection, they went for aircraft factories, oil and
transport links and the German cities.


What's amusing about the conspirowhacko sites Michael loves
so much is they always ignore the Opel truck plant,
which was pretty well destroyed by bombing.

Opel was (and still is) owned by General Motors.

Keith


Truck production in Germany was never up to the level as to effect the
conduct or outcome of the war. The Germans used hundreds of thousands
of horses in their invasion of the USSR in 1941 because of their lack
of efficient transport. It got even worse as the war progressed. One
of the chief advantages the Soviets had in their campaign against the
Germans was the tens of thousands of excellent, dependable trucks
shipped to them from the West, which ran well even in the Soviet
Winter. This allowed the Soviets to move vast amounts of men and
materiel faster and more efficiently than the Germans. The Germans
never did grasp the importance of motorized transportation, putting
the priority of the rebuilding or repairing of truck plants behind
that of of the rebuilding of aircraft and tank factories.


Of course the Germans couldnt find adeqaute fuel for the
motorised transport they had so producing more trucks
wasnt a realistic option anyway


It is
ironic that the Germans didn't put much effort into building good
shoes for their troops, given they had to do so much walking!!

As a matter of interest, there were about 350,000 trucks and almost
100,000 jeeps (the commissars didn't like walking) shipped to the
Soviets during WWII.


In addition to the 22,000 aircraft (7,400 Commonwealth and 14,500 US)
and 12,750 tanks (5,200 Commonwealth, 7,550 US) and 2000
railway locomotives they got.

Keith