The men and women I met in Norway were largely of a different opinion.
In Operation Grouse, the British (not Soviet) Special Operations Executive (SOE) successfully placed four Norwegian nationals as an advance team in the region of the Hardanger Plateau above the plant. . . . In 1943, a team of SOE-trained Norwegian commandos succeeded in destroying the production facility with a second attempt, Operation Gunnerside. Operation Gunnerside was later evaluated by SOE as the most successful act of sabotage in all of World War II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegi...water_sabotage
My reply......
The Soviets didn't direct any operations of the resistance in any occupied country, however the resistance in Norway, France, Italy, Yougoslavia, Holland and Belgium were all members of communist parties that took direction from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union [CPSU]. Obviously the Russians didn't have the presence in these countries that the British and US had, so the CPSU approved from resistance/communist party members to work hand-in-glove with the covert action services of other allies, in particular the Special Operations Executive of MI-6, and the Office of Strategic Services.
I can't speak for the opinions of Norwegians you may have met, but my family members, who were Labor party members and officials, told me that the occupation was not malicious. They told me that they got along well with German soldiers, and that the Germans treated them respectfully. This is why there were so many sexual liasons between Norwegian girls and Germans, and some Norwegian girls even volunteered to have "Aryan babies" out of wedlock in Nazi-operated programs.
The US tank engagement you cite in the forest is only one engagement.. Of course there were a few outstanding engagments where the Americans held the upper hand. One such tank engagement ended the life of legendary German tanker Michael Wittman, who's tank was hit from behind by a Sherman Firefly. This particular German had destroyed well over a hundred Russian tanks before his SS unit was sent to France, where he was killed by American tankers.
You still haven’t proved a source or citation to support your ratio.
Ballistically, the Firefly was almost the equivalent of the Mk V and VI, even at range, and you ignore how the traverse rate on German tanks was slower than that on U.S. tanks. So, in probability, the Firefly would have two shots before the German could acquire a target.
That’s why the P47s Thunderbolts were so important. Or, as Patton so eloquently put it, the Shermans could “Hold them by the nose and [the P47s could] kick them in the pants.”
The U.S. introduced the M26 Pershing in 1945, it saw very little action against German tanks because, by February 1945, German tanks on the Western Front were as rare as hen’s teeth.
Logistics matter, and U.S. manufactured trucks contributed to Nazi defeat. You dismiss British and U.S. contribution to the war effort and give the U.S.S.R. most of the credit for the final victory. Yes, the Soviets did develop the best, mass-production combat tank, the T-34, during the war, and yes, the Soviet sacrifices on the Eastern Front were tremendous and the Soviets engaged the preponderance of Hitler's forces.
But the Soviets also employed hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufactured trucks to keep their tanks supplied with ammunition and fuel. “The Soviet Union was only able to produce 343,624 cars and lorries due to the heavy commitment of major automobile factories like GAZ to armoured vehicle production. The USA alone provided the Soviets with 501,660 tactical wheeled and tracked vehicles, including 77,972 jeeps, 151,053 1-1/2-ton trucks, and 200,622 2-1/2-ton trucks.” The Soviets also flew U.S. manufactured P39s and employed over 7,000 U.S. manufactured tanks, mostly M4A2 Shermans, and nearly 16,000 pieces of heavy artillery in its fight against Nazi Germany.
http://ww2total.com/WW2/History/Production/Russia/Lend-Lease.htm
Furthermore, Hitler reintroduced general conscription in 1935. Afterwards, in Germany, all men received their Stellungsbefehl (order to report for induction) and were mustered into service, if able bodied. The feeble minded and institutionalized were “euthanized”
As the Nazis conquered other nations, a portion of those populations was declared “racially German” and granted provisional citizenship; thus, making them subject to induction. Only Jews and Gypsies were proscribed from military service. As the war intensified, even the Waffen SS was forced to augment its numbers by mandatory transfers of “volunteers” from the Luftwaffe and navy to keep the illusion that all had “volunteered” for service in the Waffen SS.
Read Cross of Iron by Willi Heinrich and The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. Both authors marked not only the heroic, but also the cowards and the sadists; thus, noting that not every German soldier was a Sergeant Steiner. While it’s true that not every American soldier may have served heroically, you are being dishonest when you discount the accomplishments U.S. servicemen men like Thomas Baker, Audie Murphy, Ysmael R. Villegas, John Basilone and Daniel K. Inouye.
Finally, Nazi U-Boats were underwater coffins.
Originally Posted by I B Hankering
I do not quarrell with much of what you cite above, but I really can't measure the worth of an army by the superiority of their trucks any more than I can by how clean their messkits might be.
As far as Patton's statements, he was of course a notorious braggart and exaggerater. He privately cursed bitterly about the shortcomings of the American tanks.
I'm sorry I can't recall the exact place over the many years where the ratio I cite is to be found, but I really don't see how you can put forward a 5 to 1 ratio in favor of the Germans as countering my argument. 5 to 1 is pretty terrible performace on the part of the American tanks.
German U-boats were very survivable for the first half of the war, but by 1943 all submarines, whether they were German, American, British or Japanese, were all "underwater coffins" because anti-submarine warfare had advanced, not because there was anything wrong with the U-boats per se.
In terms of the low morale of American draftees, their poor performance was documented in study after study by the war department, and these studies became de-classified and available beginning in the 1960s.
Contrary to what one sees in "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers," most US draftees didn't want to sacrifice their lives for far away soil and didn't believe that the Germans or Japanese were ever going to actually invade the United States. Added to this was the expectation by the American public after Pearl Harbor that the aim of the war was to bring about a peace, like the first war had ended with an armistice. All this was shattered when Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill later announced that the aim of the war was the conquest of Japan and Germany, and that the fight wouldn't be over until their capitals were occupied and their governments overthrown. That's when a lot of Americans lost their zeal for the "crusade."
Toward the end of the war this sentiment resulted in a lot of American military dicisions that favored Stalin. The American command didn't want to ask their soldiers to sacrifice for capturing Berlin, or any particular advance, when they could see that the Russias could accomplish it if the Americans just held back and waited. It's also the reason why the Russians were allowed to take so much ground in Asia from the Japanese.
As for John Basilone, I stated before that the Marines and other all-volunteer US units had high morale.
Basilone distinguished himself when he held off a Japanese wave on Guadalcanal. Basilone burned his arm because he had to hold a .30 calibre machine gun on his arm while he used it to rake the on-coming Japanese. He and his men on that occassion had no where to go but into the sea if they let the Japanese drive them back.