Transport Capacity

What is the best way to calculate a road "debit" ?

Edited: example - how many troops could get into 1 Km of road ?

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on April 26, 2005 09:58 am

I am almost certain that I have this data in a journal at home, at least for German and Soviet WW2 units. The journal accompanied a game that had some rules for this... for units to get the "road bonus" to movement they needed to have certain spacing between them.

I assume you want the space they take in tactical formation? It's leaving enough space that they don't all get killed by the same artillery round, or caught in the same ambush, that takes up the space on the road. If they can be tightly packed (no chance of enemy contact), just add up the lengths of all the vehicles and multiply by 3.

Now all I need to do is remember to look for this journal when I am home

Actually I need this to simulate transport capacity of roads and overloading them with troops/autos, so basically I need road capacity for infantry troops while marching towards the frontline.I did try to do some math and what I came up with was some 4.000 men would fill 1 Km of road while marching and still allowing a space for cars to get through - however I don;t know if this is even close to the correct figure...

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on April 26, 2005 09:38 pm

Your equation is not that simple to simplify, and you need at least one more dimension: the time. So you would need an average of transport capacity/distance/time.

For troops marching in formation, 1 soldier/meter is reasonable. A front of 4 soldiers filling one lane of road is also reasonable, and they would split to the sides of the road to let a vehicle through.

That's just the math, however.

I have concerns about the validity of extending this to 4000 men. You don't hear of regiments marching in one large mass formation. They break up into companies, with space between them, and more space between battalions. Anyone who has ever tried to control a large group of soldiers in formation has seen the "caterpillar" effect. Some troops speed up... some slow down... some stop for different reasons. Portions of the column compress, and sometimes gaps appear. The space between the elements keeps these natural effects from causing chaos.

Also even foot-mobile infantry has some vehicles. The same rules apply to them.

Dragos time I will use for something else, how I did the math was: stop time - look at 1 Km of road - see how many soldiers fill it.I will also use the speed, but it is defined as a separate thing although it has direct impact on road traffic.

Jeff:

That is indeed how I did the math It is good to know what you said about the spacing, I should take this to account.


BTW: Dragos any ideea what is avarage speed for infantry marching ? and what is the fastes (and for how many Km) ?

I had to tear my basement apart to find this journal. Naturally it was in the 15th box I looked in, and the hardest to get at.

From "Soviet and German Weapons and Tactics in the East 1941-45" by James F. Dunnigan, Strategy & Tactics, No. 28, 1971:

He makes another point about movement in the same article which is worth quoting. It concerns Dragos's point about the amount of time it takes for units to use a road:

Dunnigan does not say where he got these numbers, but he does include a short bibliography. He went on to become a respected historian and writer about military affairs. At this point in his career (1971) he was better known as a wargame designer. He had just finished the design of the legendary game "Panzerblitz" so I think we can trust his numbers. All of this is reprinted totally without permission, so hopefully he will not sue me.

There was also a wargame ("Lost Battles") which accompanied this journal article. Naturally I found that in my collection an hour before I found the journal.

Jeff I really apreciate your effort !

This is music to my ears you stroke gold !! Now I need to start doing some more math.

You are most welcome. I knew that I was saving those journals for some reason. I thought of that article as soon as I read your forum post.

The entire article is 12 pages, I could scan it and send it to you if it would be useful. There is a large 2-page chart with data on the most important tanks. (Nothing that is too hard to find elsewhere, but still nice to have in one place). There are also several smaller tables with artillery and small arms data. The text is interesting too, I'm thinking of posting some excerpts on the forum just as a starting point for discussion.

I doubt that I would get to it before the weekend, which would mean sending it Monday (scanner is at home, while high-speed internet is...ahem...let us just say "not at home").

PM me if you are interested.