[Leica] There's something about German design ...

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 11:08 AM 1/15/2007, GREG LORENZO wrote:

 >This is not corrrect, most German armor on the Western Front was put
 >out of action by air power (i.e. rocket firing Typhoons, etc.) and to
 >a lesser degree by anti-tank guns. A significant amount of German
 >equipment, including tanks was abandoned in perfect working condition
 >when the Germans retreated east after the battle of Falaise. Germany
 >had no effective airforce left to provide battlefield cover at this
 >point in the war and could only move effectively at night.
 >
 >This is also incorrect (except for the fact that Germany had no air
 >force to speak of at this point). German prop fighter aircraft were
 >just as good as allied aircraft. Their jet aircraft clearly superior.
 >They lacked trained pilots after 1942.
 >
 >World War II was won primarily on the Eastern Front by the **Soviet
 >Union**. This is summed up nicely by the author Charles B. MacDonald
 >in his book "World War II: The War Against Germany and Italy".
 >
 >
 >On land, the Western Allies (primarily the USA) in WWII clearly won
 >the Pacific War against Japan. North Africa, Italy and Western Europe
 >were very much a side show in the fight against Germany. Strategic
 >bombing of German plants and cities and German occupied Europe and
 >naval actions excepted.

Greg

Well over 75% of the US military effort was 
dedicated to the NATO/MTO/ETO, and 80% of ground 
forces were stationed there.  The Pacific and 
South-West Pacific and SEAC Theaters did not 
require and did not receive large numbers of 
ground forces until DOWNFALL, the invasion of the 
Home Islands, became imminent, when it was 
planned to move the First Army from the ETO and 
the Fourth Army from the US to bolster the 
existing Sixth, Eighth and Tenth Armies.

The German jets were duds.  To my knowledge, none 
ever shot down an Allied fighter, though Allied 
fighters shot down a number of ME-262's.  (The 
ME-262's were fuel hogs with VERY short 
legs.  So, when they sortied, Allied air just 
flew about their air bases and had a turkey shoot 
when they returned to refuel.)  So unimpressed 
were the Allies that they did not bother to field 
the first jet squadrons (Meteors and P-80's) 
although several squadrons of each were ready for battle by FEB 1945.

German prop fighter aircraft were decent but VERY 
dated by 1944, when the mainstay was still the 
Bf-109G.  This was no match even in an even fight 
against a later model of the Spitfire or a P-38 
or P-47 or P-51.  The later developments of the 
FW-190 were excellent and competitive aircraft 
but were maintenance nightmares, expensive to 
build, and difficult to operate, and there were 
damned few of them around.  Note that the Germans 
were unable to mount any sort of air attack 
against OVERLORD in June, 1944, and things only went downhill from there.

What destroyed the German military was not 
superior equipment but superior training and 
doctrine.  The Allies constantly pulled 
experienced pilots back from combat units to 
train new pilots, while the Germans kept their 
pilots in combat until they were wounded or 
killed, and their training suffered 
dramatically.  And the RAF noted in 1940 that the 
Germans had adopted the tactic of flying high and 
"bouncing" Allied aircraft, then diving to 
escape:  the Luftwaffe strongly discouraged 
dog-fighting.  The RAF adopted this policy under 
Bader's tutelage, and they in turn sold the USAAF 
on this doctrine.  Fly high, bounce the bad guys, 
then dive and escape, and regain altitude.  The 
late-war Allied fighter aircraft all were built with this in mind.

Recent statistical analyses have caused the 
impact of air attack on German armor to be 
downgraded significantly.  There is no question 
that the Typhoons and P-47's took out a lot of 
armor, but not on the order previously claimed by 
the USAAF/USAF.  You are correct to note the 
impact of ground guns.  The US Army had decided 
to reduce its anti-aircraft forces by early 1944 
and effectively closed down its AA training 
base.  Following OVERLORD, the field commanders 
in the ETO came to appreciate the virtues of the 
90mm AA gun as a can-opener, and AAA training was 
ramped up again and dramatically.

But the big killer of German armor in northern 
Europe were Allied tanks and TD's.

MacDonald was an excellent author but, other than 
his personal reminiscence, COMPANY COMMANDER, his 
works have long ago been superseded by later 
research and studies.  Come over to H-War and 
post your statements there and see the wealth of scholarship revealed!

The Soviet Union did a job on the Germans but the 
modern view is that the Allies had to keep the 
pressure on in western Europe to prevent the 
Germans from fixing a defensive line which would 
have been able to hold.  In other words, the 
Soviet efforts were necessary for OVERLORD to 
succeed but, then, OVERLORD was necessary to 
allow the Soviets their massive gains in the summer of 1944.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!