Germany (first as the Weimar Republic, and later as the Third Reich), although it was one of the largest economies in interwar Europe, did not have a stunning degree of motorization in its society. The famous project of a people's car (German: Volkswagen) started shortly before the outbreak of World War II and in fact - for civilian purposes - began to function only after 1945. The German industry as a whole was also clearly inferior to its American competitor in terms of efficiency or the production techniques used. One should also remember about the necessity to import significant amounts of crude oil by the then Germany. All this, of course, influenced the degree of motorization of the Wehrmacht. On the one hand, it had fully mechanized and motorized armored and light divisions. Also, several types of support units in infantry divisions (especially artillery and communications) were fully or mostly motorized, but horse traction was still the main means of transport for supplies in the Wehrmacht. Moreover, despite attempts to unify the German car fleet and introduce successful trucks (eg Opel Blitz) and off-road vehicles (eg Schiwamwagen or Kübelwagen), the number of types of cars used in the Wehrmacht was significant. Of course, it influenced the pace of repairs, transport, etc. Contrary to popular beliefs, it is difficult to call the entire Wehrmacht during World War II a fully motorized or mechanized army. In this field, it clearly gave way to the British Army and the US Army.
Long before the start of World War II, the United States had a well-developed automotive industry, which in the 1920s and 1930s clearly dominated its European competitors. Considering the complete security of this industrial base in 1939-1945, it is not surprising that it was quickly converted to armaments production and, thanks to its enormous capabilities, made the US Army fighting in Europe or the Far East properly fully motorized and to a very high degree. mechanized. The saturation with motor vehicles was then much higher in the US Army than in the Soviet or German armies. In the case of infantry and artillery units, on the one hand, this translated into a very high mobility of these units, but on the other hand, it also allowed for a huge acceleration of actions. Among the several types of trucks used at that time (1941-1945) in the US Army, it is worth mentioning the GMC CCKW or the Studebaker US-6. The Willys Jeep light all-terrain vehicle also seemed to be ubiquitous. The degree of saturation with trucks and off-road vehicles of US Army units can be proved by the time of the "light" armored division from 1943, which assumed the possession of, among others, 460 trucks with a capacity of 2.5 tons and 449 Willys vehicles! Also, American infantry divisions were de facto motorized divisions, as they often used motor vehicles to cover longer distances.
The Red Army in the 1930s experienced a very intensive development, marked, inter alia, by the automotive industry and the mechanization of many tactical compounds. Many new brigades were created, and later also armored corps, and the artillery traction - field or anti-aircraft - was also motorized. All this meant that drivers responsible for driving and the simplest repairs of all these motor vehicles began to play a significant role. With the start of the German-Soviet war on June 22, 1941 and in connection with the enormous losses suffered in the first months of that war, the Red Army clearly began to suffer from considerable shortages in the field of trucks and off-road vehicles (equivalents of the American Willys Jeep). These shortcomings were still visible during the Battle of Kursk (July 1943), when the Central Front had only about 29,300 trucks of all types, both in field and logistic formations. Let us add - we are talking about a military group of over 700,000 people! These deficiencies were associated with considerable problems when it comes to efficient logistics, delivery of supplies via wheel traction or quick transfer of forces. Undoubtedly, the Red Army was much less motorized at that time than the American or British armies. It is also worth adding that a large part of the Red Army trucks were Studebaker cars obtained under the Lend-and-Lease program. A lot of Ford GPA and Willys Jeep vehicles were also sold to the Soviet state.