The truck issue in NWE came out of three roots IIRC, low quality aluminium allocated for pistons, changes in engine lubricating oil due to the streamlining of US and UK grades and a sparse shortage due to the higher than anticipated mileages out running the programmed provision of spare parts. The line I've head is that all the low grade aluminium from the early war scrap drives (pots and pans etc) had to go somewhere and be used, so it drifted down the priority list to end up in truck engines. Early war most armies had a high degree of standardisation for their lubricants with the minimal number of grades. But the influx of essentially civilian vehicles blew the to hell, on top of which was the natural creep of experience driven additions (high and low viscosity for temperature ranges etc) left a pretty messy picture by mid war, worst with the UK/US forces in Britain. As a result there was an official program from about 43 on to rationalise things but there was generally a 12 month lag in the order-production-delivery cycle for the bulk of 'normal' stores, so the changeover of UK vehicles to in that case a US sourced detergent type oil on;y really happened with the invasion and detergent oils need careful introduction when coming in over non-detergant types. They tend to loosen existing deposits left by the straight oils which can lead to blockages etc.

Just one the procurement planning aspect. Under the then UK system procurement/production planning worked in 6 month blocks (with intermediate reviews every 3 months), based on two things. The expected consumption rates for everything (men to shoe laces and spare 25pdr barrels) was tabulated by unit and activity. Activity was at one of two rates, Quiet or Intense, and every 6 months the General Staff were asked to forecast Divisional Activity in 6 month blocks out to two years in advance. eg, in the last half of 1941 the supply staff would be told that in the 1st half 1942 there would be 17 Divs at Intense, 35 Divs at Quiet - 2nd half 1942 , 22 Divs Intense, 30 Quiet, and so on. The first two increments (1 year) were taken as gospel, the third increment (18 months) was only taken as indicative and the last (2 years) was for information. The supply staff would ten take these Div/Activity figures, set them against the tabulated consumption rates work through a couple of modifiers for known exceptions (more vehicle spares for desert ops etc) and produce an overall consumption figure for each block. This would then be adjusted for existing stocks, and anticipated deliveries to fine tune the next half years supply, and set the base program the 6 months period after that (1 yr), and provide long lead guidance for the third block (18mths) - and if you think that is a clumsy system the Australian Army did it all long hand, the British at least had IBM tabulators.


The implications should be obvious, and what people really mean about logistics driving strategy.

shane

Rule .303
Shoot straight, you bastards.

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