在第二次世界大战中有一个很奇怪的情况，为什么德国能够在全面崩溃的1944年达到军火生产的顶峰？要知道在1944年苏联已经在东线发动了十次斯大林突击，东线德军只能处处挨打，而在西线英美盟军的战略轰炸日渐猖狂，德国很多军工厂都被炸成了平地。 But it was in this year that Germany produced enough weapons and equipment to arm 270 divisions, and successfully kept the German army out until 1945.
德国经济部长—施佩尔
In September 1943, an unfamiliar name appeared on the front page of Germany, Speer, who was about to become Germany's Minister of Armaments and Wartime Production, at this time Speer was unimaginably powerful, he was not only in charge of the country's military equipment production, but also responsible for the country's civilian economy.
Speer was originally Hitler's personal architect, but his good personal relationship with Hitler led him to the key position of German Minister of Armaments and Wartime Production in 1943. Although he was able to come to power because of his good personal relationship with Hitler, his performance after taking office can show that Hitler is really discerning.
From then on, Speer was in charge of the German economy, and in a very short time transferred Germany from a procrastinating eight-hour day to a wartime economy for all, with any allocation of resources being as war-oriented as possible. It was in 1944 that Germany's arms production reached its peak during World War II.
1944年，狂暴的德国武器产量
In 1944, Germany's arms production reached a new stage, and in 1944 Germany's production of weapons and equipment was 6.25 times that of 1939. In this year, Germany's military factories were at full capacity, producing enough weapons and equipment to equip 225 infantry divisions and 45 armored divisions, and the production capacity of some equipment was not inferior to that of the United States.
In 1944, Germany produced 34,500 combat aircraft, of which more than 30,000 were produced for combat effectiveness, 87,000 for various types of artillery, and 27,000 for tanks, self-propelled guns, and tank destroyers, many of which were new Leopard tanks (Germany produced more than 6,000 Leopard tanks in World War II).
The output of small arms is even more amazing, the output of all kinds of machine guns, rifles, and submachine guns is in tens of thousands, especially the unique German assault rifle STG44 has also ushered in a production explosion, with a total of more than 400,000 units produced. Due to Germany's preference for the army in 1944 in arms production, the production of the navy and various support equipment declined, especially military trucks, which Germany produced only 80,000 units, compared to 560,000 units produced by the United States during the same period.
We need to know that such a huge amount of weapons production was accomplished by Germany in the face of the complete collapse of the front line and the daily strategic bombing of the rear? How did Germany do it? Today we will explain in detail the reasons.
44年产能巅峰背后的秘密
First of all, the most indispensable contribution to Germany's ability to reach the peak of arms is the German Minister of Armaments Speer mentioned above, after Germany fully transitioned to the wartime economic system in 1943, Germany's arms production capacity is still rising very slowly, because the local government openly and covertly resists the orders of the central government, but this situation was completely reversed by his ruthless means after Speer came to power.
Another factor that cannot be ignored is that Germany finally completed the entire industrial facilities of European countries in 1944, although in 1941 Germany and its allies had already controlled most of Europe, but industrial integration was a slow process, and in 1944 Germany finally completed this process, and in 1943 Germany sent troops to occupy Italy and looted Italian industrial facilities, so that Germany reached the peak of weapons production capacity in 1944.
Another factor was the massive use of prisoners of war in Germany for weapons production. Due to the large number of adult men conscripted into the army in Germany in 1944 and the lack of workers in the country's military industry, Speer used prisoners of war and Jews as laborers, who worked at least 14 hours a day and were not paid and only had poor food.
In this way, Speer received a large amount of cheap labor, and although there were cases of deliberate sabotage by prisoners of war, in the face of large-scale production of military equipment, these were trivial things. Throughout 1944, the amount of equipment produced in Germany increased by 39 percent compared to the previous year, but at the cost of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of laborers dying as a result of intense work.