The Wehrmacht way of war emphasized short and lively wars (the German General Staff inherited this from the Prussians). This was based on maneuver and attacking the enemy as rapidly as possible while they were still unbalanced. This would occur with scant regard to long range strategic planning and long term thinking. German armies on the offensive were to move as fast as possible with scant regard to logistics. This is why so many of their offensives resembled death rides and so many of their campaigns ended in disasters.
The Red Army possessed the 'cult of the offensive' even more but were as strategically focused as the allies. On the eastern front, it was the Soviets that were usually attacking. Stavka, like the OKW, generally gave 'stretch goals' during 1941-1942. It was only after the fumble in early 1943' where they moderated their ambitions.
The NKVD and other draconian security organs ensured that when Red Army Generals and Marshalls attacked, that the Armies would be obey and take their objectives with a 'whatever it takes' attitude. This extended to the quality of their assault armies, which was problematic until winter 1942.
The Western Allied Armies which attacked Normandy was always intended to be mobile, though you might well query the wisdom of this philosophy, which apparently ignored the lessons of the battle tanks on the Eastern Front, in particular Khursk (if they were even aware of those lessons). Reading contemporary accounts of the Western tankers in Normandy and beyond, I cannot help but be struck by how the presence of Tigers (in whatever form)struck dread into the hearts of crews of Allied battle tanks -even Fireflies.
The Western Allied Armies were exceptionally mobile in the tactical sense (as in skirmishes and so forth) but also exceptionally weighted down by logistics, base building, and firepower oriented doctrine. They had a great many vehicles due to full mechanization but all this equipment required a dramatically larger supply chain and maintenance efforts.
This meant that they took a long time to accumulate materials before larger mobile operations. Meanwhile, the enemy could lick their wounds and reorganize. The advantage of being strategic, slow and steady is that the allies usually fought only battles they could win or get away with not succeeding.
The Wehr and Red Army were in comparison, light weight and fast moving in their strategic offensives. Both armies moved their forces with a supply chain that would be starvation level by US or British standards.
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