Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Soviet units, although well supplied with lend-lease trucks, were able to live off the land much better than WA or even Wermacht units, reducing their need for the long logistical chains that WA armies could not operate without. One of these days I'll track down the stats that back this up, but the Red Army in WWII was able to field and supply a larger combat force than the WA with fewer supporting units and trucks. Even so, the Red Army during Operation Bagration was able to advance over 450 miles along a broad front in a matter of a few weeks before logistical difficulties slowed them to a halt.
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Fair points but where we use the term "living off the land" we really mean moving across the landscape like a plague of locusts. It's bad enough for rural civilians during times of war but it would be orders of magnitudes worse if the army moving through your area was relying on what they could "find" in the local area to supply themselves.
By late in the Twilight War NATO forces would be forced to operate in much the same way but I still suspect that Soviet soldiers would be more hated by European peasantry than their NATO equivalents for the above reasons.