Lost, and Not the Luftwaffe by steelrazer
Close
Hover over top left image to zoom.
Click anywhere to exit.
Members remain the original copyright holder in all their materials here at Renderosity. Use of any of their material inconsistent with the terms and conditions set forth is prohibited and is considered an infringement of the copyrights of the respective holders unless specially stated otherwise.
Description
I didn't realize until recent reading enlightened me that there were more horses used by the belligerent nations in WW 2 than in any other war in history.
Germany and the Soviet Union alone used over 6 million horses in the course of the war, with Germany utilizing about 2.75 million horses and mules. The bulk of the German forces were infantry and horse drawn artillery and equipment with only about a fifth represented by panzer and mechanized mobile units. There weren't ratty old used up horses either, but were from the same state stud farms that supplied some of the world's best dressage and show jumpers available. Considering the massive support they required, fodder, veterinarians (6 companies), farriers (37,000), and training, horses represented a massive logistic and expense. They were, however necessary to Germany because of chronic shortages of oil and gasoline.
It is interesting to contrast this with the astounding and inventive weapons deployed and envisioned by the Germans during the conflict.
I thought I would depict a horse-drawn column paused while the drivers and infantry sort out where they took the wrong road and who's fault it is. Above them fly a pair of Henschel-126's recon aircraft "as the crow flies". Well, I guess that if you get lost on the ground, you just stop and sort it out.
German supply wagons: Terrific models generously shared, free, at sharecg by Papus3d.
Hs-126: Another impressively beautiful model shared for free at sharecg by Pedro Caparros. Thanks again, Pedro.
Horses: Millenium horse from DAZ3d and ADH3d horse from ADh3d!
Tack for horses: the old paintbrush and photoshop post work.
German artillery and Horse Troopers: Epici low poly Enemy soldier Lwr01 with Core arts uniforms and JTrout Russian military overcoat, all tweaked and texture adjusted.
(There's no provision for a foul language advisory so don't blame me if you're offended. They are lost, after all!)
C4d6CE+XL, Poser9, Vue6Infinite, PS Cs3
Comments (13)
neiwil
Perhaps the 'flyboys' can drop them a compass.......this is really top notch Bill. Love the misty atmos and a great wagontrain! I was familiar with the large scale use of horses but not the numbers of vets and farriers. I suppose half the wagons in your image will be full of hay ( and the odd escaping allied airman :-) Very cool image mate......
London224
Love the fog Bill and a really nice composition, very realistic of everyday life in the field...comps can't always be movie spectacular scenes...super dramatic..this has some real meaning behind it. 5 +
Daddywolf
Not that war is fun ,but this is a fun image the different scenes that can be taken from this point
AliceFromLake
Well, German logistic was not mechanised like the American. They had the most modern tank army but the motor car and truck production was far behind that of the USA. Thus the army was very conservative and trusted more on horses than on motor vehicles. They needed the whole war to get convinced of automatic rifles and introduced them in the last year of war. Too late. BTW, most of the civil logistics was transported by train before the war. Germany had a very dense railway net. So trucks were only used for transport of the last mile. There were many horses in use too. Very nice and convincing picture.
giulband
Great picture, great well made historical reconstruction!
fly028
Superb scene!! Great atmosphere!
illkirch
Interesting and well done
Dreamdesigner
Beautiful scene,İnteresting historical details about horse carriages of the Wehrmacht! Vue is successful at that hazed /misty atmosphere,Uniform tweaking are successful as well!Actually, it's really hard to find Authentic and detailed uniforms of the active forces of WW2,for M4!We don't have all the nations uniforms and correct gears for renders,we have to use serious postwork,I was do the same thing in my WW2 Aviation render about Me262,you already know :-))
aeilkema
The rendering quality of this image is excellent, looks very well :)
UVDan
I love the image and history lesson.
debbielove
This is very true.. More so as the war progressed.. Great render, creates a scene from almost anywhere! Top job. Rob
pcaparrosc
Great atmosphere and composition, Bill. Great story too. But not surprised. Still in 1975, during my service in the Franco army (involuntary and quite useless) I was assigned to a unit high mountain in the Pyrenees. Much of the transport is effected directly back of a mule. By impossible roads where not arrive or wagons, no cars, no trucks, mules arrived. The admiration of a city boy like me, for these animals. Thanks for the mention.
bucyjoe
well done