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the German Army was THE outstanding tactical fighting force of the war, even with the dead strategic hand of Adolph Hitler at it's controls.

A number of years ago, I read a very scholarly study written by Martin Van Crefeld (sp) while he was a contractor here in Northern Virginia about the fighting efficiency of the Wehrmacht in WWII. It had been promoted by to early (late 1940s-1950s) attempts under the leadership of the famous Colonel Dupuy, USA to model combat outcomes using computers of the era. The simulations used battles from WWII as the subjects because they had accurate order of battle information and knew the actual outcomes of the battles. However, the modeling had a problem. They could never get the modeling outcome to match the actual outcome of the battle unless they INCREASED the troop strength of the German forces by 50%. This efficiency was present in all battles from 1939 to 1945 and it did not matter if the Germans were on the offensive or defensive.

Never has any army (German) in history fought so well for so monstrous a cause.

A warning, if ever one was needed, against turning the state into a religion and its leader into a God.

While we would not have been has inhumanly profligate as the Soviets were in expending human capital, it is safe to say that hundreds of thousands of baby boomers alive today would have perished with their fathers in the mud of European battlefields

My father was an 8th Air Force bomber crewman, so include me among those who would not have seen daylight had the war not ended when it did. Since he was regular Army and Army Air Corps before WWII started, he was not eligible for the 25 mission rotation. He flew over 120 missions during 1943 to 1945, was wounded(lightly) twice, and shot down/crashed three times.

It was just a matter of time before his number came up. Sure glad it didn't.

promoted = prompted

A warning, if ever one was needed, against turning the state into a religion and its leader into a God.

Amen and amen!

Print it boldly on the next batch of dollar bills and all that follow for perpetuity!

He flew over 120 missions during 1943 to 1945, was wounded(lightly) twice, and shot down/crashed three times.

Thank God he came home.

One of my uncles was a pilot and his brother a tail gunner. Thankfully they came home too.