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AJH -> (7/11/2001 9:39:00 AM)
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Just a few quick thoughts on comparing armies...
Large American armies, like most democracies, have traditionally been citizen armies with a small cadre of experienced professionals. Junior officers in conflicts such as WWII got 'on the job training', and many learned the hard way. While this somewhat lessened in the Cold War, it will happen again if another large conflict erupts. The military in Germnay and other European nations has a bit more tradition, and has generally been a more acceptable career choice (although this has varied by era-good gentlemen in 18th century Britain generally frowned on az military career-a fact that helped the birth of our nation to some extent). When our soldiers are through fighting, they go home, not back to the barracks. Germany by 1939 had a reasonably seasoned force, with reserves who had served in either the Hitler Youth (a quasi-military social org) or had served and been sent into reserve status. The officer corps had many seasoned vets from WWI, when they served as junior officers either in the field or the fine General Staff. The Amwerican officer corps was far smaller and far less experienced. It is not our tradition (again, unitl the Cold War) to have a large professional standing army.
In some ways these two armies are apples and oranges...it has been acknowledged by the American military (I am thinking of Trevor Dupuy's excellent study) that the German soldier outperformed his allied counterpart, in almost every situation. If Germany had possibly had a chance to frequently get 10-1 odds in combat situations, are you saying they would have declined? Why did German soldiers consistently envy Allied artillery and air support(great accounts in 'Frontsoldaten' among other books)? Surely Germany had more concern for the life of her soldiers, unlike than the accusations German generals cosistently made about Russian tactics after the war. No veteran who it has been my honor to meet would ever bypass the chance to eliminate enemy resistance and not have sacrifice their own men, if at all possible. What you call mock heroism is common sense to many. This is true even in ancient times. Thucydides shows us that stealth and intelligence are often weapons that are just as capable as others. So is economic power, and thus were we able to gain our '10-1 odds'. When combined with advances in technology that had an industrial infrastructure to apply it, Germany realistically faced long odds, however heroic and professionally competent her armies were.
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