I read a pretty good history of WWII, and by the time our ground troops crossed into Germany no ground pounder wanted to the last man to spend the rest of his days with no legs. Supposedly, the army was having trouble getting the troops to engage the Germans. The infantry was at the end very prone to call for artillery and/or tactical aircraft to take of the Germans. There was also a steady stream of guys bugging out to Paris to make a pile of money in the black market.
>I read a pretty good history of WWII, and by the time our ground troops crossed into Germany no ground pounder wanted to the last man to spend the rest of his days with no legs. Supposedly, the army was having trouble getting the troops to engage the Germans. The infantry was at the end very prone to call for artillery and/or tactical aircraft to take of the Germans. There was also a steady stream of guys bugging out to Paris to make a pile of money in the black market.
I doubt that was an issue for Patton’s troops. They feared him more than the Germans.
You speak of American troops using artillery a bunch at the end of the war.
When we fought a battle to take over the German city of Aachen in late 1944, the Germans used a bunch of snipers. It quickly got to the point that if a sniper was located (usually by shooting an American soldier) in a building, we’d use 155 mm howitzers to level the entire block.
Yeah, no one wanted to go home in a box or as a cripple, and we used our incredible material superiority to reduce casualties on our side.