What kind of “pig” did the Wehrmacht put with its own high-quality German boots
It is difficult to find anyone who would be ready to challenge the popular and well-deserved cliché about the notorious German quality. No, there are many things that the pedantic Germans do very well. However, history knows at least one case when the desire of a gloomy Teutonic genius to do the best possible and think through everything to the smallest detail played a cruel joke with the end user of such products.
There are very few nails. Photo: emilia-spanish.ru.
During World War II, the vast majority of German soldiers wore so-called “Marschstiefel” (hiking boots), made of cowhide and abundantly nailed to improve the grip of the sole on the surface. In addition to the massive nails themselves, such boots were also accompanied by “horseshoes”, which had to be installed with the onset of cold weather. All this “happiness” was supposed to increase the stability of the fighter, as well as increase the resource of the boots, protecting them from wearing out too quickly.
And then there were these horseshoes… |Photo: glamours.name.
Needless to say, all those 6- and 5-sided nails, as thick as a pinky finger, did the Germans a disservice in the very first winter. Due to the abundance of iron in the construction, German shoes froze even faster than Soviet kirza. The winter of 1941-1942 set a record for the number of frostbites of the lower extremities in the Wehrmacht. The shape of the boots did not help the invaders either. The fact is that the Germans preferred to make an extended shaft for greater convenience. However, in winter, shoes with this shape began to “slurp” the snow. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that boots produced after the start of the war were made with a shortened shaft of 35 cm instead of 41 cm for older models (to save material).
The Germans liked the winter.
For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that Soviet boots froze in the cold no worse, albeit not as quickly as German ones. The main problem of the Wehrmacht was that during the war years, they, in fact, did not have full-fledged winter shoes, while in the Soviet Union they used good old felt boots. In Germany, during the war, they tried to make their own ersatz felt boots, woven from straw… The effectiveness of such shoes was extremely low. However, it is rumored that they were eaten well by front-line horses.
A Red Army soldier shows German ersatz felt boots made of straw.