It ' s an apocryphal story that actually obfuscates the truth . German infantry divisions were supplied by horsedrawn artillery and supply wagons as well . Only Germany ' s panzer divisions were motorized . Germany industry as a whole wasn ' t nearly as wellequiped at waging war as popular history thinks it was . For the entire war , the Germans were hellaciously short of military trucks and mechanized equipment . Soviet soldiers had functioning rifles . I ' m sure that at some point across the millions of Red Army soldiers , some of them lost rifles or ammunition and mounted bayonet attacks , but these were the exception rather than the rule . MosinNagants were made in enough numbers that any Soviet unit with a working supply line had functioning rifles . German soldiers did not resemble Teutonic super men , they were mostly raised from a generation that had grown up in the depression . Many were malnourished in their childhood , and some units displayed marked inexperience during the Barbarossa campaign . Soldier quality was a big problem for many countries in WWII . The Germans had a healthier pool of midlow level officers however .