ABSTRACT
The success of Albert Speer in achieving a quantum leap in annaments production after 1942 must naturally be set alongside the inadequacies of mobility. By 1944, the monthly tonnage of annoured vehicles (tanks, assault guns etc.) was roughly 15 times what it had been in 1940. However, against the forces asemb1ed by Stalin, such an achievement does not look so impressive. In the great Russian frontal attack on Anny Group Centre in mid-summer 1944, for example, the Soviets assembled nearly 200 divisions with 2.5 million men, 6,000 tanks and assault guns, 45,000 guns and mortars and 7,000 aircraft. Gennan production of tanks, assault guns and similar annoured vehicles was but 1,500 a month. This had to service the demands of western and southern as well as eastern war theatres. The Gennans also faced increasing quality hazards in their armament supplies, the consequence of the conscription of foreign labour in the annaments industries, including prisoners of war. Of equivalent note were the dramatic weapon failures, for instance the giant Ferdinand tank fIrst deployed in the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Even so, the technical superiority of some Gennan weaponry was freely acknowledged by Allied forces right up to the closing months of the war.
