“The rule of thumb that we had with tanks when I was in the Army (more years ago than I want to admit) was two hours maintenance for every hour of operation. “
Wow that is an amazing stat. Makes one appreciate even more the logistical side of WWII doesn’t it!
The Russians have had a similar issue shifting their forces along the exterior lines of communication from the Kyiv thrust, then back to the Donbass, movement to Kherson, etc.. They likelyost a lot of operational vehicles simply because they had to move all that distance.
The Ukrainians had to move much shorter distances in response because they had interior lines, and also could more easily evacuate and repair the vehicles that did break down. It doesn't show up in war porn videos, but those kind of things make a very real difference in terms of how much combat power each side has lost and retained.
Rick Atkinson’s trilogy of books on the US Army in WW2 talks about this at length. For D-Day, logistical planning went down to how many typewriters they would need for typing up reports on day 1, and where they were packed in the ship to get them offloaded when they were needed. Americans are really good at organization.