Soviet motor vehicle supply

[Politician01]

Accoring to Krivosheev the RA had 318 000 motor vehicles on January 1st 1942

It got 150 000 and lost 60 000 in 1942 so thta it had 408 000 on January 1943.

in 1942 the USSR produced 35 000 trucks and 5000 cars - Lend Lease delivered 80 000 vehicles = 120 000 - where do these 30 000 motor vehicles come from? The civilian industry?

[Paul_Atreides]

>in 1942 the USSR produced 35 000 trucks and 5000 cars - Lend Lease delivered 80 000 vehicles = 120 000 - where do these 30 000 motor vehicles come from? The civilian industry?

Actually right numbers for 1942
29,0 thousands new vehicles, 90,0 from civil sector, 30,9 foreign = 149,9 thousands in total.

http://www.vif2ne.ru/nvk/forum/0/archiv ... 536115.htm

There doesn't count captured vehicles.

[Der Alte Fritz]

One should not get excited about these totals, as Glanz shows that around 1/3 were employed in Military Districts rather than with front line units and that these rear area vehicles and civilian vehicles were available for use in both sectors. In a similar way the RKKA front line units were involved in harvesting food behind the lines to help with the war effort.

For me the most important statistic is that in 1938 - the last year of peace, the United States produced 70% of the worlds motor vehicles, the nearest rival Great Britain just 9%. American may have adopted the motor vehicle, the rest of the world hadn't.

[ML59]

Anyway those totals are not so impressive. The much smaller French Army of 1940 boasted more than 400.000 motor vehicles (cars-trucks-tractors) the vast majority coming from requisition.

[Der Alte Fritz]

The other factor to take into consideration is that Lend Lease vehicles were supposed to be soley for the war effort and not to add to the recipients economy yet this was not always followed nor were the distinctions entirely clear. So some Lend Lease lorries disappear from the totals and become weapons as they are fitted with Rocket launchers and other disappear into the civilian economy as industrial lorries, for use by paramilitary organisations such as the NKVD or Soviet Railways and other destinations. The whole subject covered in the GATVU report in 1945 which Art posted about a year ago.
See:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... s#p1767368
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... U#p1762488
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... U#p1838009

[Der Alte Fritz]

ML59 my old friend, I wondered how long it would take before you arrived. You must have smelt the gasoline.

My newest fact is that the British Army had 1,250,000 motor vehicles in 1944 which is double the Soviet total in 1945 and they fielded less than 50 Divisions.

[Art]

Anyway those totals are not so impressive. The much smaller French Army of 1940 boasted more than 400.000 motor vehicles (cars-trucks-tractors)

Tractors and motorcycles were counted separately. One should consider that most Soviet motor vehicles were trucks or converted from trucks, only few were light cars.