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Old 10-17-2012, 05:49 PM
mikeo80 mikeo80 is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Fayetteville, NC
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Default Some math

Web,

The numbers I am going to use are out dated. However it should give you an idea of just how much supply was needed by NATO during the first and second offensive of WWIII.

In WWII, The Allied quartermasters had 28 divisions on the field during the breakout and race to the Seine after D-Day. For offensive operations, each division required 750 tons of supplies per week per division. That is 21000 tons of supplies per week. The French Rail system had been systematically wrecked prior to D-Day. To try and ofset this logjam, and until the Allies could capture Antwerp, the Red Ball Express was created to try and close the gap. At its' peak, the Red Ball was operating over 5900 trucks and delivering 12,000 tons of supplies per week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ball_Express

Now we move to the late 20th century. We have seen that the American/British/Canadian offensive consisted of approximately eight divisions. However these are M1A1's, Chieftains and Centurians. Not to mention whatever the German army committed with their Leopard II's.

I would also point to the real world of Desert Storm. During the height of Desert Shield, the Navy logistics was moving 42 thousand tons of cargo into Saudi Arabia PER DAY. This does not include the efforts of the Air Force and the nationalized civilian aircraft.

http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/dstorm/ds4.htm

Web, I think that this give some idea of what amount of supplies Reforger would have to provide to resupply the West Germans and keep the Nato offensive moving forward.

Hope this helps.

My $0.02

Mike

Last edited by mikeo80; 10-17-2012 at 05:55 PM. Reason: math mistunk
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