ABSTRACT
In practice combat troops were obliged to detail personnel and to expend much effort on making up deficiencies. The complicated marches and counter-marches which the army executed across the plains of western Poland and eastern Germany had to be interrupted for rest days, which the troops used mainly for the preparation of food. The officials responsible for the military preparations paid relatively scant attention to building up food supplies. As a result the army's food supply agency regained its autonomy, but nothing was done to raise standards of efficiency and the bureaucratic apparatus soon lapsed into slothful routine. Russia's military leaders may also have believed that her western neighbours, being more richly endowed by nature, had ample stocks of foodstuffs to spare, which the Russian forces would be able to buy or confiscate when they moved west. The officials responsible for the military preparations paid relatively scant attention to building up food supplies.
