Plan Z included some supply ships, but raider tenders were not the same as fleet auxiliaries able to keep pace with a fast battle group. Germany's geographic problem was therefore more severe than a list of combatants suggests. Planners in the late 1930s could not assume that a future war would hand them Norwegian and French bases. Those conquests were black-swan developments for Germany as well as Britain, so a credible concept of operations had to work without them.
Notable Point · 35:32-36:12
Plan Z could not assume Norwegian and French bases
Prewar planners had to support Atlantic operations from German bases because the later conquest of Norway and France was not a usable planning assumption.