Posted on 03/07/2019 10:41:21 AM PST by daniel1212
Well, they didn’t think the Americans could fight, given they were a nation of immigrants, farmers, and store clerks with no military tradition. They were proven wrong at Cantigny, Château-Thierry, and Belleau Wood. The Americans were green as grass, but they kept on fighting until they won. It was one of the things that shocked the German army and damaged their morale in 1918.
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They were pretty vexed that we didn’t run away when they started shooting at us.
“They were pretty vexed that we didn’t run away when they started shooting at us.”
The Democrats hate conservatives for the same reason.
Yeah, well the Germans must be slow learners, as we had to show them twice...
I think the correct answer to that is...Who cares, they lost.
Of course that attitude is exactly what caused WWII.
My takeaway from the statements taken from the Germans was they they expected Americans to hide in the trenches and instead they advanced and patrolled outside the trenches. That shifted the balance because apparently nobody else on either side was doing that at the time.
The Germans were also horrified by our use of 12 gauge buckshot trench guns. They filed a formal diplomatic protest at the use of a barbaric weapon.
Looks like poor Ludwig was a busy feller on that cold December 4....
Good thing for him that his story remained consistent through 4 interrogations.
Patton was a General in WWII. The article was about WWI.
He also was a lower level commander in WWI.
Yeah, but he wasn’t “the reason” for the widespread performance of US Soldiers and Marines in WWI.
Well, the Americans were just as green when WWII came around.
One of the stories told in the Marine Corps was that when the Marines first arrived and dug into their positions, the Germans moved up to within 100 yards and began setting up their camp in plain view.
Naturally, the Marines started picking off the German soldiers, who promptly moved back to 200 yards to set up camp.
The Marines resumed picking off Germans, who retreated another 100 yards.
This continued until they were 600 yards away. The Marines finally stopped to settle in for the night.
LOL! I was just about t0 mention the same thing.....
German troops held their own against the rest of Europe for years. It really says quite a bit that they were immediately fazed by American troops.
Back then we had a much higher percentage of rural people who grew up with guns and hunting.
I was just going to post this. General Patton did a lot to convince the Americans that they were good fighters. Thank God for George Patton. He is still my most revered leader and role model.
I don’t doubt the general veracity of the story, but I wonder if the ranges cited are accurate. I mean, you could take someone who has never handled a rifle in their life to the range and they’d be able to hit man-sized targets at a hundred yards.
GMTA. I think it’s because we can see SPRING from here in Michigan.
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