A convoy of 20 trucks and two halftracks. Look how much road space just this small convoy takes up. Imagine an entire tank battalion of 100 tanks and as many other vehicles. No wonder the military police are so essential when units move.
This is the view of the convoy from the fighter planes. Get in low and don't miss! Even if you don't score many hits, the disruption caused by trucks swerving off the road and maybe into a ditch will slow down progress.
Some say airplanes should not fly along the road when they attack a convoy, but rather should attack it from the sides. An attack along the road may cause you to be more likely to fly over an exploding truck and knock yourself out of the sky.
Proper spacing between vehicles is essential. You don't want one large mine or bomb to explode and take out more than one truck. On the other hand, more distance between trucks makes it hard to keep together in poor visibility or to respond to infantry ambush.
Still, despite the disadvantages and troubles of a truck convoy, it beats walking!
Some say airplanes should not fly along the road when they attack a convoy, but rather should attack it from the sides. An attack along the road may cause you to be more likely to fly over an exploding truck and knock yourself out of the sky.
Proper spacing between vehicles is essential. You don't want one large mine or bomb to explode and take out more than one truck. On the other hand, more distance between trucks makes it hard to keep together in poor visibility or to respond to infantry ambush.
Still, despite the disadvantages and troubles of a truck convoy, it beats walking!
4 comments:
There was a series of books about the or around the 43rd Wessex division in Normandy and beyond.
But I think the book is Assault on the Siene. They make reference to having a Window for Traffic as a U.S division was going to move across them using all the roads and that they had a massive amount of time of clearance and priority, (12+hours it may have been 20) But the 43 had to plan around that. So this is just pre Market Garden. So also thinking of the red ball express and one way traffic In French area of Combat.
Logistics is the key to modern combat. Troops cannot live off the land like they did in the 19th Century and before. Without fuel, and ammo and spare parts; armies fall apart.
Mike,
You are correct about truck and train busting. They taught us that in AFROTC. In a training fillm called TACTICAL WEAPONS EFFECTS TEST, there is footage showing an F-100 and an F-84 [I think] hitting a rail line and having to fly thru the scunnion. Both planes went down, but the pilots ejected safely.
Jim.
Mike,
What you say about logistics is absolutely true. Supply drives operations. Look at the US in Vietnam versus the Soviets in Afghanistan. While we continually ran multidivisional operations, the Russians were usually hard-pressed to do more than a yearly foray into the Panshir Valley. Amateurs talk tactics. Professionals talk logistics.
Jim.
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