Chris Madel

So although Germany has Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Hawk, all the rest of it, they're very much elites only.

So there is no mass-produced car for the proletariat like there is for the American worker with a Model T.

That's the point.

And so there isn't even kind of mass production like there is in Britain with Morris's and so on, or in France with Citroën and Renault and Peugeot, which are manufacturers coming in.

Citroën is the largest automobile producer in Europe into the 1930s.

So in 1935, there is one motorized vehicle for every 65 people in Germany.

But in 1939, four years later, that figure is one vehicle per 47 people.

So it's increased, but not much.

So don't be hoodwinked into thinking because you've got autobahns, you've got lots of cars.

And one of the things that really annoys me about period films of Germany is they always have far too many vehicles in the scenes.

They weren't there.

And comparatively with Britain, there is one vehicle for 23 people in 1935 and one vehicle for 14 people by 1939.

And that figure by 1939 is eight people for every motorised vehicle in France and three in the USA, which basically means in the USA, literally every adult has got a car that they can drive.

Access to a vehicle, yeah.

In Italy, which has Alfa Romeo and Fiat and all the rest of it, it's 106 people for every motorised vehicle.

The lack of German vehicles in 1939 has massive, massive knock-on effects, which goes beyond just a vehicle shortage on the front lines.

Because, of course, if you've got fewer vehicles, you've got fewer vehicle factories.

If you've got fewer factories, you've got less mechanics with the necessary vehicle knowledge.

You've got fewer repair shops and garages.

And you've got fewer filling stations.