The attack into Russia.  The deadliest war in human history all by itself.  

Anyways, I've always wondered and never heard, how the heck the Wehrmacht kept boots on their soldiers feet?  They were marching behind their mechanized forces between 15-25 miles almost every day, often in wet or extremely hot conditions.  Millions of men.  There must have been battalions of cobblers following in their wake.  I know the logistics for anything on that scale are mind-boggling, but in reading about the advance and especially the often chaotic retreat, the boots.  How did they maintain their boots?

Mud straps, they work - have you ever seen the old-style engineer or harness boots? 5/8" wide Leather strap goes around the back of the heel. Another 5/8"leather strap goes under the boot in front of the heel. Third 5/8" leather strap goes around the front of the ankle. Straps are connected by metal rings with a buckle to cinch the assembly tight on the boot. Kind of like a pair of spurs but with a strap replacing the spur itself.

Well, you can get a comparative feel by looking at how many pairs of boots we shipped the Soviets - was in 15 million? Too tired and lazy to google it tonight.

The crazy thing about German logistics is that they really didn’t go full speed for a couple of years into the war.  Factories were mostly m-f, 9-5.  Yet, they generated huge quantities of highly technical equipment, did major repairs on battle damaged gear, and supplied tens of thousands of horses.  The numbers are mind boggling.