Even some that weren't technically NCOs.
Posted on 06/06/2015 10:07:55 AM PDT by PROCON
Few narrative historians have been able to capture the essence of war quite like Stephen Ambrose. The Eisenhower biographer published several books on the war later in his life, including Citizen Soldiers, Band of Brothers, and perhaps the best one volume treatment of the Normandy invasion, D-Day: June 6, 1944.
One theme running through all of those books was the sheer ordinariness of the American GI and how, when confronted by the greatest challenges of their lives, outperformed, outfought, and outsmarted the seemingly invincible Nazi war machine.
From a blurb advertising D-Day:
They wanted to be throwing baseballs, not hand grenades, shooting .22s at rabbits, not M-1s at other men. But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought. They were soldiers of democracy. They were the men of D-Day. When Hitler declared war on the United States, he bet that the young men brought up in the Hitler Youth would outfight the youngsters brought up in the Boy Scouts.,p>
Hitler lost, largely because “the Boy Scouts had been taught to figure their way out of their own problems,” writes Ambrose. Americans were trained to use their own initiative and not blindly follow orders, like the Germans. This proved decisive on Omaha Beach, as nothing went as planned, and the first and second waves of the landings were being slaughtered. And then, one by one — mostly NCO’s — began to realize that staying put was death andthey began a slow, painful climb up the bluffs. There was no mass charge, but rather small groups of two and three soldiers taking it upon themselves to get the job done.
Ambrose points out that never could have happened in the German army.
In an interview on Brian Lamb’s C-Span show Booknotes, Ambrose expanded on this theme:
LAMB: Why was it a great day?
AMBROSE: You know, you can’t exaggerate it. You can’t overstate it. It was the pivot point of the 20th century. It was the day on which the decision was made as to who was going to rule in this world in the second half of the 20th century. Is it going to be Nazism, is it going to be communism, or are the democracies going to prevail? If we would have failed on Omaha Beach and on the other beaches on the 6th of June in 1944, the struggle for Europe would have been a struggle between Hitler and Stalin, and we would have been out of it. If Stalin had won, the Iron Curtain would have been on the English Channel. If Hitler had won, I don’t think he would have been able to take Britain, at least not in the immediate future, but he would have gone all the way to the Urals. Hitler’s plan was to turn the problem of conquering America over to the next generation, utilizing the resources that he intended to have as a part of the greater German Reich as a result of victory. It really did turn on getting ashore and penetrating that Atlantic Wall. Now, once that Atlantic Wall was penetrated and we had a beachhead and you could begin to move from England into the continent, this tremendous outpouring of America’s factories that we had managed to get over to England by winning the battle of the Atlantic in 1943, if you penetrated the Atlantic Wall then it was no longer a question of who was going to win. It was when is the end going to come. Germany could not possibly prevail against — but if Rommel stopped them cold on the beaches — this was an all-or-nothing operation. Eisenhower, when he took command in January of 1944, said, “This operation is being planned as a success. There are no contingency plans.” Had they stopped him — and they came very close to stopping him — we would not have been able to mount another operation in 1944. This was Hitler’s great chance to win the war — stop them in June of 1944 on the Atlantic coast, then he can move 11 panzer divisions to the east. Eleven panzer divisions might well have swung the balance on the eastern front, or they might have had another effect. They might have led Stalin to conclude, “Those blankety-blank capitalists. They’re up to their old tricks. They’re going to fight till the last Red Army soldier. To hell with that. I’m going to cut a deal with my friend Adolph again, just like we did in 1939. We’ll divide Eastern Europe between us.” That wouldn’t have lasted. Sooner or later they would have clashed, but the democracies wouldn’t have been in on it anymore.
I’m surprised that D-Day is trending on Twitter given the ignorance of the past couple of generations about the significance of June 6. But those of us old enough to remember when commemorating D-Day was a big deal, should take the responsibility for passing on the feelings that all of America experienced that day, summed up in Eisenhower’s D-Day address to the troops, and FDR’s heartfelt prayer.
Those brave men who stormed Omaha beach on D-Day were in their late teens or early twenties, the same age as the college students who today must have safe areas on campus least they hear or see something that might be a “trigger” of bad feelings.
Yeah, I was thinking America is great, because America is good. God, I hope we don’t blow it.
I'm an admirer of Stephen Ambrose and there is truth in his admiration of the valor of American boys raised to question everything vs. utterly fanatical Japanese and Germans. Von Steuben observed something similar a hundred and sixty five or so years before, saying with Prussian trainees you told them what to do and they just did it. American troops would demand to know why they were doing things Von Steuben's way. If the Germans had equaled the Americans and British in numbers, mobility, and air and ground firepower the fight in the west would probably have turned out very differently.
I think today's volunteer American army is similar to the Wehrmacht in terms of professionalism, but made up of the same kind of irreverent and free thinking Americans that served at Valley Forge and Normandy. It's more than sad to see them having to serve under this current pack of traitors.
Hitler's best chance was in 1940 with the prospective invasion of Britain. That failed, and in 1941 the Germans failed to take Moscow. Stalemate. The last thing Hitler wanted. From then on it was only a matter of time.
The only thing that could have possibly save Hitler's wienerschnitzel was the development of the V2 rocket and jet aircraft. But it was too little too late with those "miracle weapons" as well.
Monty Python had a video for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2jgrGtiYHE
Or Boy Rangers of America—William O. Darby.
“Certainly they are no good at war’’.— General Erwin Rommel on the capability of Italian troops.
WE’ll blow it. IN addition of being good and great, America is also stupid. All we have to do is notice whom we elect to become our leaders and how none of them are held responsible for their “mistakes”.
WE’ll blow it. IN addition of being good and great, America is also stupid. All we have to do is notice whom we elect to become our leaders and how none of them are held responsible for their “mistakes”.
When Hitler had Rommel killed (by choice of suicide or being shot), the war was pretty much lost for Germany. True, his death was due to Hilter’s insane paranoia.
Rommel’s chance could’ve come at D-Day. but he was back home, believing there was no way Ike would attack with the weather conditions the way they were.
In fact, if you want to credit God, He set up a LOT of things for the Allies to win the day....not the least of which was the Nazi’s utter arrogance that they could withstand and repel a major invasion.
Even some that weren't technically NCOs.
Most countries have an Army, in Germany, an Army has a country.
After Stalingrad I’ve often thought that German Army wasn’t necessarily fighting to lose but it certainly stopped fighting to win. I think they were just trying to satisfy honor and collectively felt they might, at the outside try to bring the war to a stalemate or, in an oft expressed delusion by some German generals, including the SS, somehow convince England and America that their mutual enemy was The Soviets and together they’d all join together to defeat Russia.
Very true..my father, who turns 100 in a few months, was a platoon sergeant in a maintenance company in the 3rd Armored Division. They came ashore in late June and early July, then plunged into the fight. Over the next 11 months, they lost over 600 Shermans (out of an original complement of 232). Many of those tanks were repaired and returned to service, creating that endless stream of Shermans the Werhmacht sergeant referred to.
There has been much discussion about the deficiencies of the Sherman—and that list was long. The early models were under-gunned and under-armored; ammo storage on some variants made the tank more prone to explode if it was hit. But the Sherman was designed for ease of maintenance, and in that regard, it was superior to other tanks. The radial engine was also used in American trainer aircraft, so spare parts were readily available. Electrical systems and other components could be easily replaced as well.
By comparison, the more-complex Panthers and Tigers were more subject to breakdowns. If they suffered more than moderate damage, they were usually written off, because the Panzer units didn’t have the time or resources to complete more complex repairs on the battlefield.
But perhaps the real difference was provided by men like my father. He grew up on a farm and had experience working on tractors and other types of equipment. Other men in his unit had been mechanics, or worked as maintenance technicians in factories. They were, in the words of one writer, “crafty with their hands,” and took readily to the task of fixing damaged tanks and getting them back into battle. Their skill was one reason the 3rd Armored could lose 600 Shermans and remain a combat effective unit. Many of those knocked-out M4s were back in battle in a matter of days, thanks to the efficiency of our logistics system and the skill of our mechanics.
During a recent coversation, I asked my Dad what it was like to pull a tank from the battlefield—sometimes under enemy artillery fire. He said their Diamond T wrecker could do 20 mph with a light tank on the hook; if they were retrieving a Sherman, the wrecker’s top speed was about 10 mph, given the weight of the medium tank (37 tons).
God bless your father for his service. And his longevity.
Yet, they couldn’t protect their most vital factories.
Not against the might of the 8th. Air Force and the RAF but they made us pay that’s for sure. Look at the stats. The air war in Europe was horrific.
It was the last amazing conflict, to save Our humble Humanity. The next is just around the corner, perhaps your zeal for protecting truth, will prevail.
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