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World War I Discussion Board
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Subject: Tooth-to-Tail on the Western Front
TrustButVerify    3/14/2008 9:45:33 AM
Just that- does anyone have an estimate of the ratio of combat troops (infantry, cavalry, artillery) to noncombat troops in World War I?
 
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Carl S       4/27/2008 8:34:16 AM
Yes, but Icant recall the titles or authors.  Definitly old stuff from the 1970s or earlier, what I specifically recall was in short magazine articals which are difficult to locat after fourty or fifty years.

You may find some old material amoungst the Leavenworth Papers or CARL, ect...  I know my father refered to smaterial of that sort published as far back as the 1940s.

While I dont recall specific numbers from those old documents one item stands out.  The author criticised one or more evaluations of tooth to tail ratios as flawed as they did not allow for the use of civilians filling the same task in other armys.  ie:  The US army & USN placed nearly all its labor support personnel & technicians in uniform as members of the armed forces.  The Wehrmacht & Luftwaffe made use of the Todt organization and similar groups to accomplish the same tasks.  These people were not counted as part of the tail as they were not in a military uniform.   ie:  The Wehrmacht was able to send severely damaged or worn vehicals back to civilian establishments in Germany to be salvaged.  Thus reducing the load on the forward repair organizations. For he US and Britian this was not so easy and most of the heavy salavage work was done by mechanics in military uniform.  ie: The Wehrmacht had some heavy contruction units, but nothing on the scale of the Construction Battalions (CB or See Bee) of the USN. Much of that was accomplished by the Germans with conscript labor, often unpaid. 
 
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