They're the best. Seriously, the notion that Nazi Germany did not go to a total war economy until 1942 (or sometimes it's 1943) simply ignores reality. They did indeed go to a war footing, mobilizing more of its economy to the war effort than either the US or UK and just slightly less than the USSR. However, its lack of manpower and certain resources, principally oil, forced them into a series of improvisations that seriously affected the war effort. There was also the specter of near-starvation on the civilian front in the Great War, which made ensuring an adequate food supply through civilian agriculture an overarching wartime requirement. So, the two classics. "German plants kept producing refrigerators until 1943". No, they kept producing them until the end of the war. It is remarkably difficult to keep food safe without refrigeration and much of the "civilian" production of refrigeration units was for cold storage of foodstuffs. The other "Germany did not employ women in heavy industry like the US, UK, and USSR" is partly true, but also irrelevant. After men were stripped from the farms in the mobilization, women became the primary farm supervisor in the small rural farms that were the backbone of German agriculture. They also worked in the military and paramilitary in large numbers. It is also indicative of the problems that the Germans faced that the first PW put to work in the German economy were set to farm labor; Polish Army PW in Poland and French Army PW in Germany. It was not until 1942 that priority for PW and forced labor work was put into industry.
From what I've read, in the first half of the war the Germans made a lot of tanks but not enough spare parts. This left a hell of a lot of tanks languishing in depots immobile and/or cannibalized for spares. True or false?
I'd suggest that if the commander of the armed forces stated that the rules of the Geneva Convention no longer were valid it would be close to Total War.
..I thought I have read they had a good damaged tank retrieval system, so that they could be repaired ..first half? what years would that be?
If you define, as I do, Total War as one side using all of the weapons at it's disposal to completely annihilate the enemy I hope we only get close.
...seems like they did ''well''--and if they had a parts supply problem, that means they did even better--with what they had ...