(Reuters) - Ukrainian troops are suffering high losses because Western arms are arriving too slowly to equip the armed forces properly, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday.
Russia has been gaining ground in parts of eastern Ukraine including around Pokrovsk. Capture of the transport hub could enable Moscow to open new lines of attack.
Zelenskiy said the situation in the east was “very tough”, adding that half of Ukraine’s brigades there were not equipped.
It wasn’t artillery, it was shells.
We had access to bat guano from islands in the pacific for nitrogen, well, eventually.
The Germans had to develop whole new chemical processes to keep up, and they were expensive.
Until the US entered, Germany had an advantage in number of guns, and actually shells too at the very beginning (England was not ready for a non-colonial war).
Chatgpt, because I’m too lazy to cite real research:
Yes, Germany had more artillery guns and shells in the early stages of World War I, particularly before the United States entered the war in 1917. Germany had invested heavily in artillery prior to the war, and its military strategy, especially in the Western Front, relied on heavy artillery barrages. This gave Germany a significant edge in terms of both the quantity and quality of its artillery.
At the start of the war, Germany’s emphasis on artillery allowed them to fire large amounts of shells in major battles, including during the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme. However, as the war dragged on and the Allies ramped up their production and coordination (with significant help from the United States after 1917), Germany’s advantage in artillery was gradually eroded. By 1918, the combined forces of the Allies, with U.S. involvement, had caught up in terms of artillery and shell production, significantly diminishing Germany’s earlier advantage.
The U.S. entry into the war tipped the balance in favor of the Allies in terms of both manpower and industrial capacity, contributing to the eventual defeat of Germany.
