Fuel and ammunition stocks

kato13 · #1 04-21-2015, 09:09 PM

The numbers are listed are tons per day.

The fuel usage of
1210 tons =
2,420,000 lbs of fuel divided by
6.84 lbs per gallon for jp-8
gives us 361,194 gallons

Jet fuel is slightly lighter so I think the numbers work out.

Webstral · #2 04-22-2015, 10:09 AM

These staggering numbers help us to understand some of the long pauses in action in the v1 chronology. I believe the US kept the West Germans in the fight in November 1995 by feeding them stocks and possibly even transporting said stocks to the East German border. Some legal fiction regarding leasing and special contracting work for NATO soldiers might have sufficed to keep the Soviets from attacking columns of non-West German trucks moving fuel and NATO standard ammunition forward. (On the other hand, it seems highly unlikely to prevent the occasional interdiction strike against a convoy of fuel trucks on the West German side of the border, followed by an "Oops! Hey, we really thought those were West German trucks.")

I believe that the entrance of Anglo-American-Canadian forces into the fighting in Germany resulted in a prompt ejection of Pact forces from West Germany. This would be just as well because the Western Allies would be drawing on very depleted reserves of fuel, ammo, and spare parts. Transatlantic convoys would have prevented them from completely running out, but even without Soviet interference the system would have been hard pressed to keep up with consumption. Throughout October and certainly in November the West Germans would have been trying to make up for their quantitative inferiority through superior fire and maneuver--both of which require a rapid consumption of stocks. I suspect that the US set aside enough for a blitzkrieg across East Germany north of Berlin with a stop line on the Oder River. With strong forces on the Oder and the prospect of a strike south anywhere along the entire northern flank of the Pact position in East Germany, the Anglo-Americans would have been in a good position to compel the Pact to withdraw. At least this would have been the thinking.

I think these same supply problems would have prompted the Soviets to pull back from most of East Germany. After 8 weeks of fighting at the highest possible tempo, the Pact logistical system would have been gasping for breath. Provided the United States announced that the aim of their new level of involvement was the ejection of communist forces from the DDR, and provided this announcement came with an assurance that NATO forces would not cross into the sovereign territory of Poland, Czechoslovakia, or any other Pact country, then the Soviets might have found it more practical to withdraw their troops from East German soil to gain some breathing space. This is not to say that they would have taken the Americans at their word. Far from it. I think the Americans entered the war fully with a bushwhacking in total violation of whatever agreement had been arranged to keep NATO forces on the sidelines in West Germany. But since staying on East German soil at all would invite ongoing operations against whatever Pact forces were present, and since support of those forces would involve additional logistical support at the expense of rebuilding, and since loss of those forces probably would be disproportionately disadvantageous to the Pact both on the battlefield and in terms of morale, withdrawal for the time being would make the most sense.

Another advantage to the Soviets of pulling out of East Germany is that a temporary cease-fire on the ground could have been put in place, pending the outcome of negotiations about the fate of East Germany. This would give the Soviets a chance to move men and materiel forward without fear of air attack. How this would play out politically while the Soviet Navy was attempting to interdict Transatlantic traffic is hard for me to say.

swaghauler · #3 04-22-2015, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kato13

The numbers are listed are tons per day.

The fuel usage of
1210 tons =
2,420,000 lbs of fuel divided by
6.84 lbs per gallon for jp-8
gives us 361,194 gallons

Jet fuel is slightly lighter so I think the numbers work out.

You would be right sir. When I did the initial calculations I arrived at the same answer but for some reason (which I can't recall) I thought that number was in Liters. That's why I though it was kind of low.