Question:
Why did the Germans produce relatively few tanks, but large numbers of fighter planes during the Second World War?
Otto von
2016-01-13 12:46:01 UTC
The Germans produced only 8,500 Panzer IV's and 6,000 Panther tanks, compared to 50,000 US Shermans and 85,000 Soviet T-34's. However, Germany produced 34,000 Bf 109s and 20,000 Fw 190 fighters, while the US produced 15,000 P-51's and Britain produced 20,000 Spitfires. Why did the Germans build so many fighters but so few tanks?
Six answers:
?
2016-01-13 13:11:29 UTC
Simple manufacturing capacity and availability of materials. A Panzer Mark IV weighs 26 tons, a BF 109 weighs maybe 3. A Tiger tank weighs 60 tons, a FW 190 weighed 7000 lbs. Germany had to import all it's iron ore from Sweden through Narvik and down the Norwegian channel with British Submarines and Beaufighters chewing on them all the way. As for the Americans all the iron they needed was in the Mesabi basin in Minnesota, they didn't have to import it. Bauxite was available in Venezuela. Also German manufacturing facilities were being pulverized by the U.S. 8th Air Force, evetually the Germans dispersed their manufacturing but then that simply introduced another step, transporting the components to a central point for final assembly. American facilities were untouched. After it was rebuilt in the fall of 1940 the Supermarine plant produced aircraft continously throughout the remainder of the war
caspian88
2016-01-13 17:57:29 UTC
Several reasons:



- The German economy was ostensibly managed by Hermann Goering, who was also head of the Luftwaffe.

- Aircraft were considered to be more important than tanks throughout most of the war, and thus had priority in the allocation of scarce resources.

- The German aircraft industry was newer and less hide-bound by antiquated and obsolete equipment and methods of production.



Note that Germany produced about 120,000 aircraft of all types during the war. Britain produced 130,000, the USSR produced 155,000, and the United States produced a whopping 300,000. If you look at the number of aircraft engines produced, the totals are even more lopsided in favor of the Allies (since many British and American aircraft were more expensive two- or four-engine aircraft, a much larger proportion than of German production).
?
2016-01-13 15:03:25 UTC
Hitler was obsessed with tanks. The ratios would probably be even worse if Hitler hadn't pushed so hard for tanks.

The German economy was stretched to the max by 1943. Tanks require about 40 tons of steel to manufacture; one can make a lot of fighters out of that much metal. The Germans were in the terrible position of having to choose between artillery, tanks, aircraft, submarines, etc.
Tim D
2016-01-13 15:04:31 UTC
And 10,000 StuG IIIs and 5,000 PzIIIs. They could not hope to compete with the manufacturing capacity of either USSR or USA however, their response was to build technically superior weapons, history demonstrates the flaws in that philosophy.



However fighters (and they were also ground attack aircraft) were essential in support against tanks as well as their use against the bombers that were destroying the factories (that built tanks among other things). Once they were on the defensive their fighter force became more important and one of the reasons that western Allied casualties were so high among the bomber forces.
Athena
2016-01-13 15:06:00 UTC
Raw materials and the Germans were slaves to engineers.

While the Americans stamped tanks out like cars.
2016-01-13 21:41:25 UTC
Germany never went into a war economy Hitler was a fool and Listened to his close Friends



One was a Pilot so Pushed aircraft Many were Army Pushed Tanks But their Industry did not have enough

Resources hence No Aircraft Carriers and only 56,000 tanks Canada Produce more than that and Russia produced 100,000 and for only one Front



today we Know if Hitler Built 100,000 Panthers 4 Aircraft Carriers and 10 Pocket battleships he could have ended the battle of the Atlantic in 12 Months thus Starving the UK



Providing the Fleet was at sea after France Fell But what people forget Hitler was only a Lance Cpl one Strip who would have ben in charge of 4 Privates in WW1



he had No Training in Running a war His generals said we should Not Start Until about 1944/45



Canada Had 11.2 Million People



11 billion dollars of munitions

1.7 million small arms

43,000 heavy guns

16,000 aircraft

2 million tonnes of explosives

815,000 military vehicles, 50,000 tanks and armoured gun carriers

9,000 boats and ships

Anti-tank and field artillery

Naval guns

Small arms and automatic weapons

Radar sets and Electronics

Synthetic rubber

Uranium for the ’Manhattan Project’



Another of the most important was the mass production of 815,729 military vehicles, including 45,710 armoured vehicles. Canadian-made vehicles were crucial in equipping the British Eighth Army in North Africa and Italy. Canada also produced rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns, antitank guns and antiaircraft guns, as well as the multipurpose 25-pounder artillery piece.

Britain had entered the war with 80,000 military vehicles of all types; however, 75,000 of these British vehicles were left behind in the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940. Virtually defenceless on the ground, Britain turned to Canada - and particularly the Canadian auto industry - to replace what had been lost. Canada not only replaced these losses, it did much more.

Canadian industry produced over 800,000 military transport vehicles, 50,000 tanks, 40,000 field, naval, and anti-aircraft guns, and 1,700,000 small arms.

Of the 800,000 military vehicles of all types built in Canada, 168,000 were issued to Canadian forces. Thirty-eight percent of the total Canadian production went to the British. The remainder of the vehicles went to the other Allies. This meant that the Canadian Army ’in the field’ had a ratio of one vehicle for every three soldiers, making it the most mechanized field force in the war.

The Bombardier company of Valcourt, Quebec, built over 150 military snowmobiles. General Motors developed a frame for another snowmobile, of which 300 were built.

Canadian Pacific Railway constructed 788 Valentine tanks in its Angus shop in Montreal; its engine was built by General Motors. 5,200 tanks had been built at C.P. Angus and Montreal Locomotive Company shops by the end of the war.

2,150 twenty-five pounder "Sexton" self-propelled guns were built by Montreal Locomotive Works.

A heavy utility vehicle body was developed in Canada. Four-thousand such vehicles were manufactured by General Motors in Oshawa. This vehicle body could be mounted on a 4x4 chassis and could, with slight modifications, be used as a personnel carrier, ambulance, light wireless, truck or machinery truck.

Canadian Department of Munitions & Supply



This department was, in a sense, one of the biggest businesses in the world. It coordinated all purchases made in Canada by British and other Allied governments for things like military transport vehicles, tanks, cargo and military ships, aircraft, guns and small arms, ammunition as well as uniforms, minesweeping equipment, parachutes, firefighting equipment, and hospital supplies. It also created 28 Crown corporations to produce everything from rifles to synthetic rubber.

Shipping & Ship Building

After the fall of France in May 1940, it became a priority to enlarge the Allies merchant shipping fleet, to replace ships lost, and to make sure that there were naval escort vessels to guard convoys against German submarines. Britain was highly vulnerable, and North American arms and supplies were a lifeline.

 

Canada in 1940 had just started to build patrol vessels for the protection of its own coasts, but Britain soon placed orders for 26 ten-thousand-tonne cargo ships and soon after orders for naval escorts and minesweepers. This was just the beginning, as Britain made clear it needed Canada to build as many naval and merchant ships as it possibly could. The practically non-existent Canadian interwar shipbuilding industry - three shipyards employing fewer than 4,000 men - expanded to 90 plants on the East and West Coasts, the Great Lakes and even inland. More than 126,000 men and women were employed.

Canadian shipyards built 4,047 naval vessels

Built 300 anti-submarine warships

4 Tribal class destroyers

410 cargo ships

At its wartime peak in September 1943, the industry was able to deliver the ten-thousand-tonne SS Fort Romaine in a stunning 58 days from the start of construction.



There were 348, ten thousand-ton, merchant ships built in Canada during the war. Large and relatively slow, but reliable and easily adapted to a variety of cargoes, these ships and those who sailed on them ensured the delivery of much of Canada’s war production.



During 1941, the first of the large 10,000 ton merchant ships were taking an average of 307 days to build (and up to 426 days in one case). One year later, average production time had dropped to 163 days (with one ship being produced in a record 112 days).

Some 57,000 individuals were employed in merchant shipbuilding and a further 27,000 worked in naval shipbuilding, which included building vessels like destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and minesweepers.

Aircraft Production

During the Second World War, the Canadian aircraft industry grew to employ nearly 120,000 workers, 30,000 of whom were women.

It delivered 16,418 aircraft to fill Allied orders, chiefly from Britain and the United States, but also for use by the RCAF and BCATP.

Before the war, there had been only eight small plants in the entire country, making about forty aeroplanes annually.

The famous Avro Lancaster bomber rolled off the assembly line at Malton, Ont., now the site of Lester B. Pearson International Airport.

Canadian aviation industries manufactured parts for huge bombers and fighter aircraft like the Wasp, Mosquito, and Hawker Hurricane (whose laminated fuselages were made of wood harvested from the forests of British Columbia).



Production in the aircraft industry went from extremely low levels before the war to 4,000 military aircraft a year by the end of the war.

Canadian factory space for the production of aircraft increased from 500,000 square feet before the war to a high of 14,000,000 square feet at its peak during the war.

Canadian industry pulled together to a great degree in many different ways and cooperated a great deal to produce vitally-needed war materials. For example, the contract to produce 1,100 Mosquito fighter-bombers was awarded to De Havilland, but they only did the final assembly. General Motors made the fuselages, Massey Ferguson made the wings, Boeing made the tailplanes, the flaps were made by Canadian Power Boat Company, and the undercarriages were built by Otaco. Numerous other smaller companies were also involved in producing other parts for this aircraft as well.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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