One of the common features of WW II for all of the combatants was the total lack of the ability to meet their needs in all requirements. This required considerable balancing of demands on resources. The only nation that came remotely close was the U.S.A. and even it had to work in conjunction with its allies.
The U.S. Navy used the Swiss 20mm and Swedish 40mm anti-aircraft guns which had been proven already in British service. The U.S. Army used the British 6-pdr anti-tank gun for its infantry units; the British Army’s 4.5-inch shell was used for one of its medium field artillery designs after the fail of one of the American design projects. The U.S.A. needed a world wide effort for the atomic bombs; the radar that was vital for the carrier operations required the combining of the technology from France, U.K and the U.S.A.
For a period some U.S. Army Air Corps squadrons use British Spitfires, British 25-pdr field guns and Universal Carriers were at times used U.S. Army units for training until U.S. equipment became available. The American airframes with Rolls-Royce engines resulted in the great American Mustang fighter plan.
The Mulberry project resulted in some sacrifice in ship repair and production war-stores including gun carriages, tanks, “Jerri-cans”, steam-boilers, ammunition boxes, and, above all, “Bailey” bridges. At one time the making of the floating-bridge units for the piers represented as much as fifty percent of the total production of military bridging.
Then there was to “B” list of 1941 when for political reasons the British order 10 complete out-fits of American equipment that Britain could not afford and would find difficult to absorb into her force structure. This order was made so as to allow the Americans to commence production for her own army without getting congressional approval for the construction of new plant and equipment.
The 2,767 Bantams were built with more than half of going to the British army and some on to Russia. If you don’t know the name, it was the original “Jeep” that became the iconic U.S. vehicle of the war. The U.S. Army gave the BRC (Bantam Reconnaissance Car) 40 designs to Willys-Overland and awarded the bulk of orders to Willys and Ford, while Bantam went on to produce Jeep trailers (T-3). The bantam was designed by the successor company to The American Austin Car Company (production1930-34), the Bantam Car Company (production 1938 to 1941), still with unofficial links the former parent company of Austin in Britain.
Despite the massive ship building effort of the U.S.A. the Americans were forced the go back on their commitment to provide Landing Ship Tank (L.S.T.) in the numbers that Britain required. This resulted in the British cleaning the slips and cancelling of the large “Audacious” class aircraft carrier H.M.S. Eagle, one “Battle” class destroyer and 2 large submarines and the re-allocation of much ship build capacity.
Note: The Universal Carrier was the only armour vehicle used in some numbers by every major combatant in WWII. It was also the most produced armoured vehicle in WWII, may-be in history. The U.S. Army used their own manufactured version. Besides the armies of the British Commonwealth, it was supplied the Free European armies in exile and to allied armies, in particular well over 2,000 to U.S.S.R. during the crisis of late 1941 to mid-1942. Sufficient numbers were captured to be used by the German, Italian and Japanese armies in be taken into front line service.
German Supply Wonders?
To uniform the vast German army the Germans simply took over the captured stocks of uniforms of their conquered enemies and re-badged and were necessary adjusted the cut and issued them to the own or client armies. The similar thing happened to the hundreds of tanks, thousands of artillery pieces & mortars, millions of rifles & machine guns and other war materials. The most important was motor transport, for even Canada out produced Germany in motor transport. From the very beginning the Germans used large numbers of Czech tanks, field guns, light machine guns in the invasions of Poland the Low Countries and France.
Even very early model British cruiser tanks in German service turned up in Russia and British artillery were used in German coast defences.
Numbers, but do they work?
In the British 2nd Army’s dash for Antwerp in 1944, the factor that hamstrung the advance was the 1,400 broken down supply motor lorries in ordinance workshops and strung out along the roads of France and Belgium.
To rebuild the German armies for the battles of late 1944, the Germans called up all those men in industry that up to then had been deferred from military service. This gave the army a massive boost in high quality semi trained manpower, but also stripped industry of key workers. This caused a fall in quality control which was heavily felt in the tanks, particularly the heaviest and most power tanks (“Panthers” and “Tigers”) while the ever reliable Mk IV panzers and variations on the Mk III panzer still managed to be just acceptable. One unit of new “King Tigers” in 1945 was lost a tank every kilometre of road travelled due to mechanical failure.
As Japan decided to concentrate on aircraft production, tank and motor lorry production contracted continuously from the commencement of Pacific War. Even though production of artillery for naval construction expanded, army artillery supply fell so finally it was effectively zero and during 1943 production of all army material fell below replacement levels of equipment. This happened at a time of a massive expansion of the army. Five divisions sent to China had only token artillery and five more had none at all. Like most countries quality control became important problem. In late 1944seven out ten aircraft had defective engines and were non-operational.
By 1945 only front line troops were issued with steel helmets and those helmets were of inferior quality. Water canteens and mess tins were issue at the rate of one per two men. Rifles production was resulting in weapons that were dangerous to the users, and statistically when you allow for the number of rounds fired in modern warfare to kill a man it was becoming debatable which end of the rifle was the safest.
