I recently asked myself the question "Why are a majority of German WWII vehicles so clean and gear free?" It would seem that an Allied vehicle's secondary purpose was a storage facility for personal gear. Is that a disciplinary issue, were the German vehicles more roomy, or were the Americans just slobs? What do you think?

This is a very good question i ve often asked my self. I believe that it has to do with discipline stuff and also the mentality of different countries. I mean look at all this tanks and vehicles. The allied and especially the US tanks and afvs always have logos on them painted and not only one, they are loaded with tons of stuff of any kind military civilian, anything you can imagine. On the contrary the German guys used mostly what was first need stuff and not exposed on the vehicles except some occassions. But is interesting to find out..

i dont think discipline was the main reason,
bear in mind most of the time after 1941, allied armour was on the offensive,
meaning all equipment needed by the crews( personal gear, fuel, spare track links etc) had to be taken with them wherever they went,
the germans on the other hand, were usually on the retreat( post kursk) so could usually rely on taking the neccessary gear from the supply chains that were supposed to be behind them.

add to that the germans general lack of supplies throughout the second half of the war.

cheers

joe

This could be true but seeing photos from the start of the war that the germans were full of supplies and more ready than all other countries i dont see so much load on the vehicles unless some times on Afrika Corps tracks and this i believe due to long distances they have to run without stop.

Another spot where you occasionally see geared up German vehicles is when they are deep into Russia. I imagine that can be attributed to the same reasons as the Afrika Korp. Do you think it has something to do with the makeup of their panzer divisions? I get the impression that they had a very good support system within individual units, as long as they weren't being routed. I'm not entirely famililar with the American unit structure of that period. I think the Americans may have been newer to the the armor game and quite possibly there wasn't a consistent support structure there. I'm really leaning in the direction of the German's abilities in effective organization and support. As well as a more strict military mindset or discipline.

I think is also a matter of planning and time. What i mean is that when you plan and prepeare a war like the germans you have all the time and comfort to prepare your moves and set down all the prospects , like supporting the units. On the other hand the americans dropped in the war without being much prepared, they were way far from their land and in generall i think that the german war mechanism was more tight and ready for the first part of war at least. You are right about the Russian front where i ve seen pics of German vehicles loaded more than the Americand did, with all kinds of stuff you can imagine, from military stuff till trophies they stealed as they fighted and moved on. So depending the era and the conditions i think you can find any kind of stuff loading, In Greece for instance the Germans used their vehicles without a single thing on them cause the distances were so near and the units so close so they didnt have to carry anything when they went out on patroling , but in the desert the Afrika Corps went out and they didnt if they were ever about to come back !!!!