German convoy near Kursk, 1943, Opel Maultier, Krupp Protze, RSO, GAZ, . 7 #ww2 #history

The German Army (Wehrmacht) see the prewar organigram - used a great variety of non-armoured vehicles during WW2. They ranged from Zundapp Motorbikes and side-cars to mighty tank transport trucks, with a gazillon of vehicles of all sides, descriptions, age, and origin. As the German induustry was never capable to produce the required number of vehicles, the German made due with whatever material thay could find, and pressed into service a healthy number of non-German vehicles, that is, Austrian, French, Dutch, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, even Italian after the capitlation or in North Africa. These countries had domestic production and manufacturers which were impressed in German service and under their supervision to proved the German logistic branch dependent of the OKW and in close coordination with the Waffenamt. Indeed, despite the budget of the Wehrmacht, 19 billion DM in 1939 rose several fold to €89 billion in 1944, it was mostly because the late setup of a true wartime economy and for the ground forces, costly tank developments which were arguably wasted, like the Tiger, King Tiger, Jagdtiger, or Maus, instead of improving existing chassis, like the amazing mass-produced STUG-III and Hetzer which had a still a much greater effient kill-to-weight/cost ratio. Trucks and light vehicles were the poor parents, and probably the only rear effort consented was done for half-tracked or fully-tracked artillery tractors and supply vehicles on the eastern front, much in demand. The Raupenschlepper Ost was one of these. Join this channel to get access to perks: #wwii #halftrack #military