Military logistics detail

[skip.knox]

I happen to be reading a biography of Napoleon (by Andrew Roberts) and came across this. I thought it might be of some interest to those writers who look for such details.

On the eve of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, he attended to his usual level of detail. Here are some of the numbers. His planned army would consist of 200,000 men and he planned on a fifty day campaign.

This would require 20,000,000 rations of bread and rice, six thousand wagons to carry enough flour for 200,000 for two months, and two million bushels of oats to feed the horses for fifty days. And enough shoes to supply each soldier with six pairs.

Certainly such logistics will vary with time and place, as well as by the nature of the campaign and the idiosyncrasies of the commander, but I offer the numbers up, for whatever use it might be to an author.

 

[pmmg]

Those shoes must be crap if I need 6 pairs for 50 days.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

French cobblers had a powerful lobby in Napoleon's gov't and probably ran the prices up to 10,000 francs per boot, too.

Those shoes must be crap if I need 6 pairs for 50 days.

 

[Queshire]

Ok, but do you really want to risk possibly underestimating the number of shoes you need for an army on the march?

 

[Ban]

Those shoes must be crap if I need 6 pairs for 50 days.

Alternatively they brought different pairs. Hiking boots, running shoes, dress shoes, clogs, slippers and of course sandals in case the Russian winter weather turned sunny. Apologies skip.knox , had to pile on while we're at it

 

[Mad Swede]

Those shoes must be crap if I need 6 pairs for 50 days.

Not really. We're not talking modern boots. We're talking about vegetable tanned leather shoes with thick leather soles which may or may not have hobnails. Whilst they are hard wearing they still tear if you catch them on rocks or large stones, and if the troops are marching every day then they'll wear out fairly fast. Shoes like that wear even more quickly if they get wet. So yes, soldiers would probably need several pairs for the campaign.

 

[Jackarandajam]

... Or, in the cherished, ancient tradition of governments, the paperwork said 2.4 million shoes but the actual number was zero and all that money went into nasty little pocketses, my precious.

 

[skip.knox]

Ok, but do you really want to risk possibly underestimating the number of shoes you need for an army on the march?

Roberts (the author of the book) said that Napoleon had complained that his soldiers were without shoes during an earlier campaign (in Iberia?) and that was the reason why he insisted on more for the Russian campaign. And they still fell short.

 

[skip.knox]

>if the troops are marching every day then they'll wear out fairly fast.
Yup. Napoleon was notorious for fast marches, and it's a long way from France or Italy to the Nieman (Nemunas) River.

I'm finding the Napoleonic campaigns worth a look because they're the last large-scale military operations prior to the advent of railroads. Even then, I have to scale things back a bit because there was substantial improvement in the roads over the course of the 18thc, which helps account for the astonishingly short travel times for ol' Nappy himself.

 

[Mad Swede]

>if the troops are marching every day then they'll wear out fairly fast.
Yup. Napoleon was notorious for fast marches, and it's a long way from France or Italy to the Nieman (Nemunas) River.

I'm finding the Napoleonic campaigns worth a look because they're the last large-scale military operations prior to the advent of railroads. Even then, I have to scale things back a bit because there was substantial improvement in the roads over the course of the 18thc, which helps account for the astonishingly short travel times for ol' Nappy himself.

What really made the difference to Napoleon's campaigns was his use of a military staff combined with the beginnings of what we now call military logistics. It is these factors which made his rapid advances and large scale operations possible, rather than the steadily improving (but still very poor) road networks.

 

[skip.knox]

A great many factors entered into Napoleon's successes. Many of those factors were unchanged during his defeats as well. He and his times continue to provide fodder for much discussion.

 

[Ban]

Say about Napoleon I what you will, but he and the colourful men in the Grande Armée were endlessly fascinating. Perhaps it is common knowledge I never knew, but remembering the fable of the little red man that supposedly guided Napoleon, I learned that he had a mamluke bodyguard. A certain fellow named Roustam Raza. Gifted to Napoleon by the Sheikh of Cairo after the Egyptian campaign.

 

[pmmg]

Ya know...when I made the shoe comment, it was more a flippant remark than a serious criticism...

It is interesting to see the counts of all the stuff he thought he needed. I am sure he had a feel for it by this time in his efforts. But...he also was not successful in Russia. So, all of this, was still insufficient.

But, because of this post, I did just include a scene where my logistically inclined character got to show off a little Not a lot of focus on logistics in my story, but it must be there in the background.

 

[Finchbearer]

No one wants soggy sandals though like the Romans when they arrived onto the humid British isles.

 

[pmmg]

The shoes reminds me of the kids, and woman always saying, I cant believe he outgrew these already. Six pairs in 50 days is a pretty fast pace to be going through them. I am sure there are a lot of reasons that made sense to them.

 

[Prince of Spires]

No one wants soggy sandals though like the Romans when they arrived onto the humid British isles.

The Romans did live through the Roman Warm Period, so perhaps the British isles were slightly less damp, letting them use their sandals to great effect.

 

[Gurkhal]

Roberts (the author of the book) said that Napoleon had complained that his soldiers were without shoes during an earlier campaign (in Iberia?) and that was the reason why he insisted on more for the Russian campaign. And they still fell short.

I hope I don't come across as "that guy" but the campaign probably refers to Napoleon's first real campaign in independent command during the 1790s in Italy. The republican French army in Italy was in sorry state, including equipment such as foot wear, when Napoleon took over in March 1796.

 

[skip.knox]

Roberts doesn't identify it (the source did not), but I agree. Napoleon had many logistical challenges during those campaigns and I think they made a permanent impression on him.

 

[Aldarion]

Roberts doesn't identify it (the source did not), but I agree. Napoleon had many logistical challenges during those campaigns and I think they made a permanent impression on him.

If memory serves me (bloody Swiss cheese, that), Napoleon was the first to utilize canned rations en masse. And the first to divide an army into corps specifically for the purposes of supply, as each corps was logistically independent of the rest of the army - and, ideally, of any sort of rear-area depots, at least where food was concerned.

 

[JBCrowson]

Ok, but do you really want to risk possibly underestimating the number of shoes you need for an army on the march?

But why so many shoes if an army marches on its stomach?