Figure 1.--Democracy and capitalism are not the best molding blocks for future infantry soldiers. This became all too apparent in the wars Anerica attempted to fight with militias. And in World War II when a green American Army had to fight the battle-hardened German Wehrmacht. There was one huge advantage the American GI had over his Axis counterpart. A substantiual number of young Americans had a knowledge of mechanics and experience working with machinery. This gave the United States a substantial advantage in a mechanized war. Here American mechanics work on a plane (perhaps a P-38 Lighting) some where in the South Pacific.

America was not prepared for World War II. Few Americans wanted to enter the War. Americans largely because of the news reels had negative attitudes Toward Hitler and the Japanese, but until Pearl Harbor a majority of Americans opposed entering the War. Only a small number of Americans had any kind of military training. The United States had introduced a draft (September 1940), but the number of Americans who had been drafted and trained was still very small. What we know about the NAZIs today was not known to the American public and servicemen. When the Allies began overruning concentration camps (April 1945), what they found behind the barbed wire when the Allies enteres the camps was a huge shock. America as late as 1941 had not mobilized for war. Nor had the U.S. military developed the modern tactical doctines needed to fight World War II. As the Panzers neared Moscow and the decisive battle of the War would be fought, the vast armada of American planes, ships, and motor vehicles needed to fight the war and the trained units needed to fight did not yet exist. There was a substantial reservoir of man power, but men with virtually no military training. The Axis had, however, not only men with military training, but experience warriors that had achieved considerable uccess. What did exist in America was a population with great faith in their country and because of Pearl Harbor and understanding of the needed to defend it. One American historian talks about the soldiers of democracy which defeated the Grman soldiers who did not have the same capacity to react to changing battlefield conditions. 【Abrose】 Unfortunately while the author has published many valuable books, this simply was not the case. Both American and British commanders were aware that their men man for man and unit for unit was not he equal of the Wehrmacht men and formations. The German units were able to achieve substantial combat power with a fraction of the supplies of American units. That was why Gen Eisenhower pursued a biad-front approach after D-Day. What the American soldier had going for him was a democracy which provided competent political leadership and capitalism that provided the implemnts of war in a quantity far beyond the ability of he Germans to produce. America had one important personnel advantage besides the number of men available and that was the largest reservoir of mechanically savvy talent in the world--American youth. More Americans knew about motor vehicles, both how to drive them and even more importantly, how to maintain and repair them, than the mechanics in all the rest of the world combined. This was not part of Hitler's calculation when he set out to wage a mechanized war. And this advantage was magbufuied by the fact that American equipment was not only designed to be mass produced, but to be easily maintained. In contrast to the over-engunnered and comolex German Pazers built without any consideration for ease of maintenabce, the American M-4 Sherman, for example, was a dream to maintain. Loosen a few bolts and you were into the tanks innards for needed maintenance and repair.

Sources

Ambrose, Stephen. Citizen Soldiers (1997).

Created: 10:34 PM 1/4/2014
Spell checked: 11:45 PM 1/4/2014
Last updated: 6:24 PM 2/11/2023