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Thread: Army logists in total war situations

  1. #1
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    Default Army logists in total war situations

    Is there anyone who could tell me what does the logistics chain look like for modern, total war againt a capable enemy?

    I am talking about a situation where we have the attacker crossing hundreds if not a thousand of more kilometers into enemy territory. There are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of soldiers, bunch of various hardware, food is needed, fuel, ammo, spare parts, the works.

    How does a front line brigade get supplied and maintained for fight? I am guessing there have to be logistics depots behind the front lines. Are they smaller, for every brigade, or are they bigger, for division sized units? or bigger still? How far behind are those depots? How movable are they? Can they be packed for movement within days? Weeks? How large in area are they?

    Do the front line units come back to the depot for repair and maintenance? (and are temporarely replaced by other units at the front line) Or does the depot dispatch field repair teams all the way to the front lines? Or is it something in between?

    You could use history examples to help me understand the process. Smaller scale example would be US invasion of Iraq in 2003, where hundreds of km were traveled within weeks. Or one could use German example in Russia in 1941, where over a thousand km was travelled by huge armies in matter of months.

    Also, what about the beginning of the supply chain? Is there a point where all the supplies (fuel, ammo, food etc) is gathered at one depot? And then all those supplies travel on the same route? Or are we talking about separate supply routes for different kinds of supply?

    I am looking for no-nonsense answers, please don't just say it is a complex subject, i know that. I just need examples, even if they are not always applicable for everything.

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    Quote Originally Posted by totoro View Post
    Is there anyone who could tell me what does the logistics chain look like for modern, total war againt a capable enemy?

    I am talking about a situation where we have the attacker crossing hundreds if not a thousand of more kilometers into enemy territory. There are tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of soldiers, bunch of various hardware, food is needed, fuel, ammo, spare parts, the works.

    How does a front line brigade get supplied and maintained for fight? I am guessing there have to be logistics depots behind the front lines. Are they smaller, for every brigade, or are they bigger, for division sized units? or bigger still? How far behind are those depots? How movable are they? Can they be packed for movement within days? Weeks? How large in area are they?

    Do the front line units come back to the depot for repair and maintenance? (and are temporarely replaced by other units at the front line) Or does the depot dispatch field repair teams all the way to the front lines? Or is it something in between?

    You could use history examples to help me understand the process. Smaller scale example would be US invasion of Iraq in 2003, where hundreds of km were traveled within weeks. Or one could use German example in Russia in 1941, where over a thousand km was travelled by huge armies in matter of months.

    Also, what about the beginning of the supply chain? Is there a point where all the supplies (fuel, ammo, food etc) is gathered at one depot? And then all those supplies travel on the same route? Or are we talking about separate supply routes for different kinds of supply?

    I am looking for no-nonsense answers, please don't just say it is a complex subject, i know that. I just need examples, even if they are not always applicable for everything.
    I smell college paper. Dude you should search every answer on all your questions yourself.
    One three word phrase in Google search page provides sufficient prime sources and general rpinformation. Archival and actual information on .mil sites included.
    Do yourself.

  3. #3
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    It is not for a paper of any kind but for my personal use, though there is no way of proving anything so I won't even try.

    In my opening post i posed a limited number of questions and if each of those question got a single sentence answer I would know everything I wanted to know. I don't need/want multi paragraph answers or essays, just the simplest possible answers to each of my questions.

    Those who have the time or will to help are very welcomed to do so. If anyone wants to help but thinks answering those questions of mine takes more time than finding a link - please by all means, do provide a link to a paper or an article which could help me with my inquiry. In any case - thank you for your effort.

  4. #4
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    Total War isn't even possible, I quit reading right there.

    total war is 100% of the population and 100% of the resources for the population being given to the war effort.

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