Open Green Fields
Banned
What if the Soviet Union during WW2 only sent in fully trained and fully equipped men?
And by full trained I mean all ground forces having at least 1 year of training, all officers having at least 2 years of training or battlefield promotions and all pilots having at least 2 years of training. And the equipment sent in must be up to specs, so for example all tanks must have radios.
Lets say that for some reason or another Stalin decrees that no soldier may be sent into battle without being fully trained and equipped, and that becomes the law.
In the original timeline more than half of all tanks in 1941 were lost to non combat issues such as by driving to the front and running out of fuel long before they even reached the front and then being abandoned or being operated by crews who had only received 72 hours of classroom instructions and the vehicles breaking down because of improper use.
Those vehicles and soldiers who are sent in will put a less strain on the logistical tail because there are less of them.
For example the logistics of a battle can handle 100 tanks, but 500 are sent in, so these 500 canabalise the resources they need from each other with results in a performance far less than 100 could achieve. Then when one factors in the industry needed to produce those 500 tanks and the people needed to train the crews for those 500 tanks the cost becomes even higher.
Now if everyone is fully trained and equipped that means less tanks are sent into the early battles and so are less soldiers, which means less tanks and soldiers can be lost.
This would also change the overall strategy because in the OTL Stalin demanded attacks and counter attacks and attacks again, he would only agree to defense when there was no other option. Now there would be less men to attack with, initially, thereby forcing a change of overall strategy to defense. Attacking is also more costly than defending.
Those tanks and equipment that are not sent in and lost but instead are sent back or kept where they are can be used for training and it also frees up the industry to produce other things.
In the original timeline there were units who were half equipped and half trained who were sent in, chewed up and the axis would capture their equipment, in this scenario such things would happen less because the units would be more trained and better equipped thereby being better at handling combat.
From an overall perspective it also means that Soviet tactics would evolve differently and so would Soviet strategy.
I personally think that many mistakes made in 1941 by the Soviet Union could have been avoided because there would simply be less men and equipment to lose, lots of people and men were lost because of simply sending in too many people which overtaxed the logistical system, and the people who were sent in sometimes did not have adequate training.
And by losing less people there would be more people available to work in the factories to produce weapons for those who would fight. And the losses would be less because the people who operate and use the equipment are better trained thereby damaging the equipment less, and also fighting better because they are better trained and have more equipment.
And by full trained I mean all ground forces having at least 1 year of training, all officers having at least 2 years of training or battlefield promotions and all pilots having at least 2 years of training. And the equipment sent in must be up to specs, so for example all tanks must have radios.
Lets say that for some reason or another Stalin decrees that no soldier may be sent into battle without being fully trained and equipped, and that becomes the law.
In the original timeline more than half of all tanks in 1941 were lost to non combat issues such as by driving to the front and running out of fuel long before they even reached the front and then being abandoned or being operated by crews who had only received 72 hours of classroom instructions and the vehicles breaking down because of improper use.
Those vehicles and soldiers who are sent in will put a less strain on the logistical tail because there are less of them.
For example the logistics of a battle can handle 100 tanks, but 500 are sent in, so these 500 canabalise the resources they need from each other with results in a performance far less than 100 could achieve. Then when one factors in the industry needed to produce those 500 tanks and the people needed to train the crews for those 500 tanks the cost becomes even higher.
Now if everyone is fully trained and equipped that means less tanks are sent into the early battles and so are less soldiers, which means less tanks and soldiers can be lost.
This would also change the overall strategy because in the OTL Stalin demanded attacks and counter attacks and attacks again, he would only agree to defense when there was no other option. Now there would be less men to attack with, initially, thereby forcing a change of overall strategy to defense. Attacking is also more costly than defending.
Those tanks and equipment that are not sent in and lost but instead are sent back or kept where they are can be used for training and it also frees up the industry to produce other things.
In the original timeline there were units who were half equipped and half trained who were sent in, chewed up and the axis would capture their equipment, in this scenario such things would happen less because the units would be more trained and better equipped thereby being better at handling combat.
From an overall perspective it also means that Soviet tactics would evolve differently and so would Soviet strategy.
I personally think that many mistakes made in 1941 by the Soviet Union could have been avoided because there would simply be less men and equipment to lose, lots of people and men were lost because of simply sending in too many people which overtaxed the logistical system, and the people who were sent in sometimes did not have adequate training.
And by losing less people there would be more people available to work in the factories to produce weapons for those who would fight. And the losses would be less because the people who operate and use the equipment are better trained thereby damaging the equipment less, and also fighting better because they are better trained and have more equipment.
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