Comments by "Nattygsbord" (@nattygsbord) on "US vs German Squads (Mid-1944) Who was Superior? | Animated History" video.
-
1
-
Sorry but this video was not one of your better.
The German doctrine was better auftragstaktik gave the Germans superior flexibility to adopt to new situations on the battlefield.
The Germans were masters of this, and this is also the reason why the war lasted so long despite overwhelming odds. The German NCOs professionalism was the biggest reason to Germany's military victories and it was the strongest card the Germans had on their hands. Many NCOs died during the war, and because of German tactics were their losses disproportionally high within the German army compared to other armies.
The German army could show surprising levels of skill even into the end in 1945 despite shortages of everything and a high proportion of badly trained teenagers within its ranks. A few of the men were combat veterans and/or highly trained and skilled men who were able to lead their newbie recruits through the hard times - and sometimes did their hard resistance cause huge problems to the allies
despite they being heavily outnumbered and underequiped. The fighting around Normandy and Seelöwe heights are a proof of this.
Germany were the master of tactics throughout the war. Their sniper tactics training videos are still very usable for modern snipers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHeGrojUjg&t=1585s
Their auftragstaktik have inspired the Israeli army, and led to victories against overwhelming odds against far superior Arab army coalitions time and time again.
The use of radios in communication between tanks, and the use of radios to coordinate air support with the army did revolutionize warfare in the 1940's.
The German air force positioning of airbases close to the frontline did allow them to fly more missions per day than the allies, and thus also allowed them to get local air superiority as they could have more planes in the sky over the battlefield at any given time, while allied planes had to fly long distances from their base to the frontline and then waste an equal amount of hours flying back home to their well protected base far behind the frontline...
This might have helped the allies from getting their planes destroyed in ground attacks from German planes, but on the other hand did the allies lose air superiority over the battlefield and troops at the frontline were left to the mercy of the Luftwaffe which could hammer them relentlessly. German planes needed only about 20 minutes to get to the frontline so they could therefore fly many bombing missions in a single day. While allied planes would need 3 or 4 hours to get to their targets. So the ground troops saw many German planes and rarely any allied planes to help them... which was indeed demoralizing in 1940 during the fighting in France and the Benelux countries.
The Luftwaffe were also experts at other tricks. Their finger four formation they learned in the Spanish civil war gave them an upper hand against the British fighter wings with 3 planes, or even against a larger formation of 5 British planes. https://youtu.be/52YOKT_O10U?t=3887
And in North Africa did the Luftwaffe planes also get the upper hand by using the cover of the sun behind them as they did dive down upon allied planes which failed to spot their enemy in the strong desert sun during the day. And time and time again would German aces use this tactic with deadly effect on their enemy, and when the allied pilots discovered a German plane diving down upon them, then it was usually already too late to start defend themselves.
The allies did usually have weapons equal or superior to the German ones. But superior German tactics did for a long time allow the Germans to compensate for their inferior numbers or weapons. The American troops were typically better equipped than the German ones, but the US Army was amateurs compared to the Germans in 1942. USA learned lots of lessons from its mistakes, but it would never come close of showing the same brilliance as the German army had when it was at its best.
The US military did have many serious flaws even after the war, and they would also later on contribute to the loss of the war in Vietnam, as the stupid body count doctrine were the result of shitty thinking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFvcuuS5eUI
1