In Jonathan Dimbleby's tome, "Operation Barbarossa," he does not mention the gauge problem. At one point, he says the use of freight wagons to transport Jews east meant that food and armaments were denied train service, apparently because of idiot priorities. Twice more, the author says that using trains slowed supplies rather than being reliable. The tanks, horse-drawn carts, and infantry had much trouble from thick mud. In sum, he writes that insufficient forethought, misjudgment of their replacement needs, and the overriding dogmatism casting Slavs as stupid, made for bad planning. Mud and winter were secondary, not primary causes of defeat.