Fuel and ammunition stocks

[Webstral]

Wouldn't you know, my rabbit ruined my copy of How to Make War, which lists this sort of information.

[Medic]

I hope the rabbit stew tasted good though...

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Webstral

Wouldn't you know, my rabbit ruined my copy of How to Make War, which lists this sort of information.

I keep my copy by my bedside, but have been looking for a digital version as I don't feel like typing it up.

Maybe ill scan it.

[RN7]

Well all jokes aside would you care to share out some of that information as I'm asking for a legitimate reason. I'm in an on going debate with a couple of Chinese communist on another forum who are under the impression that the PLA is one the march and the West is in terminal decline and some of my sources were eaten by my dogs.

[kato13]

It is pretty self explanatory but let me know if you have any questions

Numbers are tons (US I believe) except for the Lbs rating which is pounds per day per man.

[kato13]

Looking at these numbers I am reminded that we thought the US and Russian numbers might have been flipped. Mine is from the third edition, can anyone confirm these numbers from another edition?

[raketenjagdpanzer]

When I was a kid I thought Dunnegan's book(s) were a damn good read but in retrospect I wonder what his source(s) are beyond pure speculation. A lot of it is too much the wargame type tables (which, given his background, makes a degree of sense).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

The numbers look kinda right to me although to be completely transparent, I am working from memory here and I haven't read the small number of books I had for quite a few years (they've been packed away for about half a decade now!)

As I understand it, Soviet vehicles were a little more fuel hungry than comparable Western vehicles but their delivery systems were also not particularly efficient. The general notion being that they planned for a hard & fast push as deep into the frontline as possible and if the unit got bogged down, the next unit would take over the push and the stalled unit would take that opportunity to repair & recover. They would continually leapfrog combat ready units over bogged down units until they achieved breakthrough.

In regards to food, the Soviets always supplied less food per individual compared to the West, the Soviets expected some localized foraging to supplement their needs but they also supplied just the basics and none of the variety that the West supplied.

In regards to spares, again, with the mentality of leapfrogging a combat ready unit over a booged down unit, technical services from the rear could be brought up to repair & recover the immobile unit because (theoretically) the stuck unit would now be back from the frontline due to the combat ready unit having pushed forward.

As for ammunition, despite what the Soviets wanted the rest of the world to believe, they knew that their tank gunnery was not as effective as Western systems and they knew they would have less hits on target and thus needed to supply more ready ammo to compensate. Their general problem was they typically had smaller vehicles and didn't have the capacity for as large ammo reserves as comparable Western vehicles but the mentality of pushing through bogged down units (and the idea of those units being somewhat disposable) with fresh units to continually push back Western forces also meant to a degree, that a unit would not need large ammo reserves - it wouldn't be around to fight for as long as a Western unit!

[Targan]

Originally Posted by RN7

I'm in an on going debate with a couple of Chinese communist on another forum who are under the impression that the PLA is one the march and the West is in terminal decline and some of my sources were eaten by my dogs.

Capitalist-imperialist running dogs?

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by Targan

Capitalist-imperialist running dogs?

Western FOOLS! Yankee Imperialist SWINE! Capitalist VERMIN! Dog-Breath Counter-Revolutionary TRAITORS! Running-Dog LACKEYS!

[RN7]

Originally Posted by Schone23666

Western FOOLS! Yankee Imperialist SWINE! Capitalist VERMIN! Dog-Breath Counter-Revolutionary TRAITORS! Running-Dog LACKEYS!

That's the tone!

[swaghauler]

After the 4/92 FA (self propelled, Reserve) was disbanded in 1992; I was placed into the 475 Quartermaster for about 6 months prior to volunteering for RESTORE HOPE with the 10th Mountain. I was there just long enough to get certified as a 77FOXTROT (petroleum specialist) and an 88MIKE (heavy wheeled vehicle driver). In 77F we studied the Forward Fuel Supply Point; A series of portable pumps connected by reinforced rubber hoses (like the kind tanker trucks use), and special 10K to 100k gallon bags that could be moved with an advancing division's rear echelon support units. While studying how to set up the FFSP; I was told that a single armored division would require 100,000 gallons of aviation gas and 100,000 gallons of JP8 (in lieu of diesel fuel) PER DAY in combat. The numbers above seem too low for an armored division's fuel consumption (with the M1 series anyway).

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by Schone23666

Western FOOLS! Yankee Imperialist SWINE! Capitalist VERMIN! Dog-Breath Counter-Revolutionary TRAITORS! Running-Dog LACKEYS!

I love it when you talk dirty...