German Tank Crew Loading Shells

High German tank crews from Panzer-Regiment xv / 11.Panzer-Division "Gespenster Division" loading shells inwards their tank, a Panzerkampfwagen III. Presumably inwards the district of Moscow, wintertime of 1941/1942. Weapons together with vehicles request exceptional lubricants to run at depression temperatures. Mines are unreliable inwards winter, owing to deep snowfall that may cushion the fuse or cast an H2O ice distich over the detonator. During World War II, the Wehrmacht lacked necessary supplies, such equally weapons together with wintertime uniforms, due to the many delays inwards the High German army's movements. At the same time, Hitler's plans for Operation Barbarossa genuinely miscarried earlier the onslaught of severe wintertime weather: he was then confident of a quick victory that he did non gear upwards for fifty-fifty the possibility of wintertime warfare inwards Russia. In fact his eastern regular army suffered to a greater extent than than 734,000 casualties (about 23% of its average forcefulness of 3,200,000) during the outset 5 months of the invasion earlier the wintertime started. On 27 Nov 1941, Eduard Wagner, the Quartermaster General of the High German Army, reported that "We are at the halt of our resources inwards both personnel together with material. We are virtually to survive confronted alongside the dangers of deep winter." Also of authorities notation is the fact that the unusually early on wintertime of 1941 cutting brusk the rasputitsa season, improving logistics inwards early on November, alongside the weather condition nonetheless existence solely mildly cold.

Source :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Winter
http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/german-heavy-medium-armour.101/page-4

Junkers Ju 52 Moving Supplies For The Invasion Of Crete

H5N1 Junkers Ju 52 3mg4e moving the supplies inward grooming for Unternehmen Merkur (Operation Mercury), May 1941. Shortly earlier dawn on twenty May twenty 1941, a flying of 500 carry planes took off from 7 airstrips on mainland Greece. As they climbed upward, the tri-motor aircraft emerged from reddish-orange clouds of dust into bluish sky. The dust clouds were generated yesteryear the propeller launder from hundreds of engines sitting on unpaved runways equally the planes prepared for takeoff. Inside each aircraft, a dozen High German paratroopers sat hunched on sail benches sweating profusely within their heavy uniforms. Each 1 welcomed the cool air that swept through the cabins 1 time the aircraft were aloft. The planes lumbered inward tightly packed formations at depression height over the pale bluish waters of the Aegean Sea toward their objective. Once they crossed the coast of enemy-held Crete, they were greeted yesteryear a tempest of flak that rocked the planes equally if they were trees inward the wind. Ignoring the turbulence, the veteran paratroopers stood up, shuffled toward the cargo door, as well as flung themselves spread eagle toward the Earth below. Once the flying crews had delivered their human cargo to its destination, they turned their aircraft dorsum toward the mainland to charge the adjacent wave. Operation Mercury, the largest airborne invasion the Earth had nevertheless seen, was without incertitude the finest threescore minutes of the Junkers Ju-52 transport, known to its crews equally “Tante Ju,” or Auntie Junkers.

Source :
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/iron-annie-the-junkers-ju-52/
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2017/06/17/merkur/