Doctoral thesis: Australian army logistics 1943-45

[maple_leaf_eh]

Thanks for the link. I jumped from the introduction to the conclusion, skipping several hundred pages in between. I note that the author described an over emphasis on fighting arms over support arms. Canada's NATO brigade in Germany was very thinly supported because the planners relied on the Allies for just about everything after the first week.

He called the Australian forces Eurocentric, which even in 2006 or 07 when the piece was published, must have been an uncomfortable statement. The origins evidently were the Army was expected to reinforce the Empire, not necessarily look after itself.

However, what I found particularly interesting was the expectation that the Australian Army would have to provide for itself, US troops, the RAAF and the RNZ forces. My conclusion is the importance of always having extra capacity is an argument many logisticians must hammer home when the bean counters look to trim.