What were the duties of the Base Auto Maintenance units such as the 623rd in Europe during World War 2?

Answer 1

Short Answer - Unlike mainenance units that were assiged to recover and repair actual vehicles in the fiel, a Base unit was a more permanent installation where more extenive work could be accomplished includng tooling actual parts. A base unit was easier to maintain logistically and was generally lcated within a theater but outside the combat zone. Longer Babble Actually I just got finished with answering why the Sherman was such an important weapon and NOT an inferior tank. Your question falls right in line. Logistics is the key to war. Strategy and tactics either use it well or not. The US Infantry Bn had about 70 vehicles while a German BN had 7. This does not even include the kitchen and supply trucks that were semi attached to each company from the Regimental service Coy of or the Divivionsla QM Column that ferried supplies up from the Divisional truckhead or the QM Coys that moved supplies over the Redball express and other supply routs. This highway sysem provided about 650 tons of supply to each "Divisional Slice" every day. A Divisional slice is each combat division at the front plus a propeortional number of all the Corps artillary, engineer, and support troops that go with them. The main supply truck was the 2.5 ton. This vechilce was rated to carry this load at 15mph off road. On a smooth paved road it could carry almost 7 tons at 20mph. So road ingineers were obviously important too. Multiply the 650 tons per day for every division in Europe and you get some idea of the size of the truck fleet that existed in the theater. Those trucks were all built in the US and shipped overseas but, once there, any repairs that could be done without shipping things home made logistical sense. Forward troops were trained to repair vechilces they could keep with them in the filed. If a vehcile was more badly damaged than that it was recovered and replaced. The recovered vehicles would go to the rear for depot or base repair. It made more sense to just ship a new engine from the US when the rest of the truck was already sitting in a field in Europe. Supply vehicles at the rear could also take advantage of depot or base repair facilities and did not need to have mobile maintenance units directly attached like the units at the front.