from January to May 1942, 5500 German troops were isolated near the town of Kholm, between Moscow and Leningrad, cut off by the Russian Army. It was the worst winter for a century. At – 22ºF (-30ºC) , THE German soldiers, frost-bitten and lice-ridden, huddled in their foxholes in the frozen ground, praying for relief.
Suddenly they heard the distant murmur of engines, which rose to a roar as 20 Junkers Ju-52 transports, escorted by two squadrons of Messerschmitt fighters, swept overhead. The sky filled with scores of parachutes falling with crates of food, ammunition and medical supplies.
For more than three months the air-drops continued, enabling the beleaguered Germans to hold off the Red Army’s repeated assaults. On May 5, German tanks managed to batter their way through to the besieged troops from the west. The Kholm Pocket had survived, thanks to good logistic support.
Logistics – the ability to supply a fighting force with food, ammunition and equipment – has always been an essential element in the art of war. And in modern warfare, successful attack or defence depends more than ever on continuous and rapid re-supply.
A modern heavy division of about 16,000 men and 1000 armoured vehicles engaged in combat will use at least 5000 tons of ammunition and 2700 tons of fuel every day. In Vietnam, by late 1968, the Americans were supplying more than 1,300,000 men, including South Vietnamese and troops of other nations. An average of 760,000 tons of supplies arrived, mainly by sea, each month.
Without this logistic lifeblood, an army dies. Napoleon’s adage that ‘an army marches on its stomach’ is as true now as it ever was. The inability of the Red Army to ever was. The inability of the Red Army to withstand Hitler’s invasion in 1941 was partly due to its inadequate supply system. Front-line troops had to fetch their own supplies from depots in the rear. Stalin ended that system in June 1943.
The Japanese failed to take Imphal and Kohima, on the Indo-Burmese border, in 1944 partly because they did not have the supplies. When the British and Indians advanced, they found starved Japanese corpses with grass in their mouths.
Picture Credit : Google