Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway,
Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Crete, Russia,
North Africa - the role call of Hitler's vanquished foes
was a list that had an end.
The crushing number of merchant ship sinkings
in the Atlantic by German U-boats was down.
Better Allied sonar and radar made Nazi
submarine commander a hazardous occupation.
British breaking of Germany's Enigma code
made finding targets for the Wolfpacks
increasingly difficult.
Their Happy Time was over.
Spats on landing gear. Quaint.
What was state of the art in 1940
looked curiously out of time by 1942.
Being successful on the battlefield
required constant innovation by the military.
Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.
German engineers invented the exotic when
practical solutions would better serve winning.
The Messerschmitt 262 jet fighter and the V-2
rocket were both unreliable and horribly expensive
weapons systems. Their ultimate military value
was minimal.
The German Wehrmacht dominated opposing armies
by coordinating a tank attack with their dive-bombers
picking off targets from above. They combined speed
with precision bombing to break through a dated
foot soldier defense. All military cohesion crumbled
when tanks were discovered coming up from behind.
Collecting up the enemy's bewildered troops
was left to the German infantry.
That was last year.
The Russians, the Brits and the Yanks, were by 1942
coming around to combined arms warfare.
In turn, German forces found themselves increasingly
on the defensive. They had lost the initiative and now,
suddenly, they were the ones reacting to their enemy's
moves.
German troops increasingly found themselves first
boxed in, then they were ground down in a contest
comparing whose weapons were more brutal.
This battle of attrition was a losing hand for the Nazis.
Stalingrad.
Three hundred thousand German troops,
their entire 6th Army eliminated. It was like
losing your queen on your third move in chess.
Hitler had already taken control of the
Volga River, Moscow's prime route to their
oil fields in the south. Stalingrad was of no
particular military value. Hitler's ace in the hole
was Blitzkrieg, not street fighting.
Urban warfare was real close up.
Room to Room. A grenade's throw away.
Not tanks popping you off at a thousand meters.
Then there was the loss at Alamein.
Rommel's Afrika Korps was now running from the British.
What do you know.
Nazi karma.
The Yanks arrived in North Africa, just to the west
of Tunis. Hitler was chortling, Come to me Baby.
He had the impression America was inept. A joke.
For good reason. It was obvious to the Germans,
Brits, French and Italians alike - American soldiers
were pathetic. They made the most basic of mistakes
in infantry tactics. Their lack of discipline made
all their other shortcomings irrelevant.
The GIs' needed Come to Jesus moment
was first provided by Rommel, who
got their attention.
Then Patton taught them what it means
to wear that uniform.
It starts with a kick in the butt.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
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