The successes of the Blitzkrieg campaigns of 1939–41 fostered an image of Germany’s unstoppable modern military machine. Yet beneath the surface lay a critical vulnerability: logistics. Postwar narratives often point to overwhelming Soviet manpower, American industrial superiority, or Hitler’s erratic leadership as causes of Germany’s defeat. While these factors undoubtedly influenced the course of the war, the decisive factor in the Wehrmacht’s failure was logistical inadequacy. Despite examples of resilience—advancing so far across the Russian steppe, maintaining industrial output under strategic Allied bombardment, and keeping the railways running—Germany’s logistical system collapsed at key moments. In Moscow, troops froze without the winter gear that was stranded in depots. In North Africa, vital supplies failed to reach the front. At Stalingrad, air resupply proved impossible. In Normandy and the Ardennes, rail and fuel shortages proved fatal. Germany’s success in the early war years hid the cracks in the system, and short-term wins came at a cost to its future. This fully illustrated volume examines the logistics of the Wehrmacht’s largely horse-drawn supply system, its successes, and its ultimate failure. Casemate Illustrated Specials offer unparalleled detail into the weapons, equipment, and machinery of war. Detailed, focused text is accompanied by hundreds of photographs, illustrations, and diagrams, providing a wealth of visual information for the historian, modeler, or researcher.

Simon Forty was educated in Dorset and the north of England before reading history at London University’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He has been involved in publishing since the mid-1970s, first as editor and latterly as author. Son of author and RAC Tank Museum curator George Forty, he has continued in the family tradition writing mainly on historical and military subjects including books on the Napoleonic Wars and the two world wars. Recently he has produced a range of highly illustrated books on the Normandy battlefields, the Atlantic Wall and the liberation of the Low Countries with co-author Leo Marriott. Richard Charlton Taylor has been schoolteacher, light infantryman and businessman. A collector and trader in World War II militaria, he has worked with Simon Forty on several projects sourcing images and providing detailed military knowledge of weapons, equipment, and tactics.