A nose-to-tail transport column of 21^st Panzer Division with Einheits-programme personnel carriers of the 8th infantry company; in front are light standard cars.

The organisation of German army supply and administration services was generally conceded to be very efficient; even up to the final months of the war, allied Intelligence reports were commenting in some surprise on how well a beaten army could yet hold together, and they were certainly efficient enough to organise support for the Ardennes offensive of December 1944 at a time when the allies reckoned that the whole army organisation should have been in chaos. The secret lay in simple administration with few and clearly defined spheres of responsibility, a basic structure which could be rapidly expanded or contracted as the military situation dictated, and an ability to utilise local resources to the maximum. In particular the two functions of transport and handling were clearly separated. The figure above shows the basic system of pushing forward supplies which, with minor variations, was applicable to all items.

TRANSPORT: Down to Divisional level, this was the responsibility of the Senior Supply Officer at Army, who had at his disposal a number of standardised units known as Kolonne or Columns. The six major types and capacities were:

(i) Fahrkolonne: Horse-drawn unit with a capacity of 30 tonnes.

(ii) Leichte Fahrkolonne: As above but of 17 tonnes capacity.

(iii) Leichte Kraftwagen Kolonne: A motorised column of 30 tonnes capacity.

(iv) Schweres Kraftwagen Kolonne: As above but of 60 tonnes.

(v) Leichte Kraftwagen Kolonne fur Betriebstoff: MT fuel column with a capacity of 5,500 gallons.

(vi) Schweres Kraftwagen Kolonne: As above but carrying 11,000 gallons.

All except (iv) were commonly found also as parts of the organic units within divisions and as components of the Divisional services which had a normal allocation of eight or nine columns of various types, the composition depending on the Division. It should be noted that Corps, as such, played a very small part in supply although later in the war it often controlled the forward supply dumps. Transport within Divisional units was divided into unit supply (baggage, rations, etc) which was provided by the light columns, and unit battle transport (Gefechtstross) which was issued down to company level and carried the ready use supplies and equipment. It was quite common, especially when the organisation was streamlined towards the end of the war, for unit supply transport to be taken under Regimental or even Divisional control where this was deemed necessary.

HANDLING: Formations down to Regiment level had special units known as supply companies (Nachschubkompanien) or, at Army, battalions (Nachschubabteilungen). These provided the labour for actually unloading and reloading consumable supplies and were controlled by special administration platoons; the only major exception was in the case of motor fuel where handling was undertaken largely by trained men of the transport columns. It was a basic rule that supplies were taken as far forward as possible without transshipment.

REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT OF EQUIPMENT: All major units had first line repair and maintenance sub-units to cope with running repairs, and Divisions had workshop companies for harder tasks. If a repair job was too big for these it was passed back direct to Army which maintained fully equipped field workshops capable of complete rebuilds and also had ‘parks’ — units which acted as reception and issue organisations for weapons and equipment. Army in turn might return vehicles and weapons to the O K H pool for onward transmission to the manufacturers and would indent on GHQ or Army Group for new stores.

OTHER SUPPLIES: It is not possible here to detail all the supply organisations (eg medical or veterinary). Suffice to say that these were generally on the same principles: to and from unit — division — direct to army, and thence to and from home area (Wehrkreis) and that, with so many horse-drawn divisions the veterinary services in particular were comprehensive. All were characterised by the same simplicity and flexibility of organisation, enabling intermediate stages of supply to be bypassed easily if the tactical situation demanded.