Re: "Funny" WWII Factoids?

"Prisoner at War" <prisoner_at_war@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:31b6ae86-fd64-475a-84d1-738a68f789b5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I also understand that while the Americans sent their "dumbest" to the
infantry, Germany sent their "smartest"....

Well no: the point is that Germany and the USA had radically
different ways of selecting and training officer candidates (and
NCOs too) and it now looks as if German methods were better.

US selection methods may have been harmfully influenced
by the British model because in the UK from 1918 onwards:
1. The RN was primarily responsible for the defence of the
homeand (and essential shipping routes)
2. The RAF was the main offensive arm, the principal means
of harming any overseas enemy.
Thus the RN had primary importance 1918-1935 and
the RAF had priimary importance from 1935. The Army
ranked last in both resources allocated by the state and
(under conscription) in manpower -- even though the
army was continuously in contact with the enemy 1940-45,
in some theatre or other. When called up, anyone could
say which arm he wanted to join. The RAF and RN could
choose which volunteers to take and train. All the rest
went into the army (including illiterates who could not
take the trade selection tests.)

By the late summer of 1944 both US and British armies
were notably short of trained infantry reinforcements. They
had probably trained too many volunteers for technical
occupations and were reluctant to assign even those who
failed (e.g. washouts from aircrew training) to such
supposedly unskilled occupations as infantry combat. The
US Replacement Depot system (of assigning new arrivals
to whatever unit needed men, rather than attempting to
send men back to the battalion in which they had trained)
was obviously harmful to morale and perhaps combat
efficiency as well.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

.

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