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Thread: What a German soldier of WWII thought of US soldiers.

  1. #11
    Site Supporter Trooper224's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by okie john View Post
    The Indian Wars were as long as some European wars, and they were the only wars that we fought on our own soil.
    So the American Revolution and the American Civil War don't count?
    We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......

  2. #12
    Am I the only one irritated by our soldiers of the day being called amateurs? By the way, if the opinion of the individual who was interviewed holds any merit what does that say for the professional German army since they were defeated? Then again, in the end it is one mans opinion and rarely can one speak for all. That, and I would hardly call counter attacking with overwhelming fire superiority as amateur. I call that shit a solid tactic.

    The story should be titled, "What a German soldier of WWII thought of British, US, Canadian, and Soviet soldiers, and never mind because he is bitter."


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  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Peally View Post
    I would imagine it was relatively easy to have disgust for many of our historical enemies at the time. Fighting "modern, civilized" cultures is our exception as opposed to the rule.
    Ahh yes and who have we fought that would be considered modern and civilized.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike C View Post
    Am I the only one irritated by our soldiers of the day being called amateurs? By the way, if the opinion of the individual who was interviewed holds any merit what does that say for the professional German army since they were defeated? Then again, in the end it is one mans opinion and rarely can one speak for all. That, and I would hardly call counter attacking with overwhelming fire superiority as amateur. I call that shit a solid tactic.

    The story should be titled, "What a German soldier of WWII thought of British, US, Canadian, and Soviet soldiers, and never mind because he is bitter."


    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
    PROFESSIONAL


    : relating to a job that requires special education, training, or skill

    : done or given by a person who works in a particular profession

    : paid to participate in a sport or activity

  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Trooper224 View Post
    So the American Revolution and the American Civil War don't count?
    Good point. I stand corrected.


    Okie John

  5. #15
    Site Supporter Coyotesfan97's Avatar
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    The Civil War was a foreshadowing of WW1. Where else do you see the impact of sending troops into fortifications where the defenders are armed with single shot rifles. The European military observers either missed this or ignored it.

    Jump forward 50 years and put belt fed machines into the mix.

    I'm thinking he didn't fight any airborne troops.


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  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike C View Post
    Am I the only one irritated by our soldiers of the day being called amateurs?
    If you look at the Army that started the war in 1942 in North Africa, they very much were amateurs from a training standpoint. The US Army as you know it of WW2 was slapped together in less than a year in 1941. In 1940 there were a little over 200,000 active duty US Soldiers. By the end of the next year, that number was around 1.5 million... All of those new troops received a very condensed training period focusing on the individual and small unit level. What is really incredible is the lack of large scale training at this point. By 1941, there had only been one real large scale maneuver exercise above the brigade level to prepare for war. They really were amateurs and when you look at the course of the war, that becomes clear. Early battles like Kasserine Pass were total shit shows, but as institutional knowledge of warfare gained through the school of hard knocks grew, the Army began to perform exponentially better. Anyone who tells you the US Army was a professional force is dead wrong. We weren't the Russians, but we weren't that far off.

  7. #17
    Site Supporter Hambo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by VT1032 View Post
    If you look at the Army that started the war in 1942 in North Africa, they very much were amateurs from a training standpoint. The US Army as you know it of WW2 was slapped together in less than a year in 1941. In 1940 there were a little over 200,000 active duty US Soldiers. By the end of the next year, that number was around 1.5 million... All of those new troops received a very condensed training period focusing on the individual and small unit level. What is really incredible is the lack of large scale training at this point. By 1941, there had only been one real large scale maneuver exercise above the brigade level to prepare for war. They really were amateurs and when you look at the course of the war, that becomes clear. Early battles like Kasserine Pass were total shit shows, but as institutional knowledge of warfare gained through the school of hard knocks grew, the Army began to perform exponentially better. Anyone who tells you the US Army was a professional force is dead wrong. We weren't the Russians, but we weren't that far off.
    Absolutely. Another point is that a percentage of newly trained men became instructors for new recruits, particularly in flight schools. Were there career soldiers? Certainly, and they were professional to the extent of their training and experience, but the Army as a whole in WWII was made up of citizen soldiers. WWI was as bad or worse.
    "Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA

  8. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike C View Post
    By the way, if the opinion of the individual who was interviewed holds any merit what does that say for the professional German army since they were defeated?
    They were defeated because the strategic bombing campaign denied them the resources to continue fighting at "professional" levels. They were using a lot of horse-drawn conveyances by D-Day, and it went downhill from there.

    .

  9. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike C View Post
    Am I the only one irritated by our soldiers of the day being called amateurs?
    Mike: My father, who was a landing craft commander in the Pacific, and who is now in his mid-90's--would tell you to this day that from the US side it was almost entirely an amateur effort, that those amateurs had to learn as they went along, that a lot of Americans died because of that, but by the end of the war the survivors had learned what they needed to know. (He would also tell you that the Marines in 1945--the guys who took Iwo and participated at Okinawa, were the finest troops he ever saw and he suspects were some of the finest in world history--their leaders were the guys who had learned the tough lessons in 1942-43).

    And the fact that they started out as amateurs was no surprise. The Army in 1939 had only something like 150,000 men, and expanded in a few years to something like 8 million.

    Those amateurs did well, but until they taught themselves they really were amateurs, just like most of our soldiers had originally been in WW I.

    Let us hope that the current defense cuts don't leave us in that situation once again. It was an expensive lesson to learn.

  10. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by LSP972 View Post
    They were defeated because the strategic bombing campaign denied them the resources to continue fighting at "professional" levels. They were using a lot of horse-drawn conveyances by D-Day, and it went downhill from there.

    .
    Fighter bombers and massive artillery also helped to defeat them, but the German Army of WWII was an extremely effective and efficient machine, and without overwhelming air and artillery power I'm not sure we would have beaten them.

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