what did german soldiers think of american soldiers ww2

Allied senior leadership was, on the whole, not inferior to that of the Germans, hampered by the dead hand of Hitler. Zenith Press. Yet for the Americans, manpower was not a problem. German machine-guns, mortars, machine-pistols, antitank weapons and armored personnel carriers were all superior to those of Britain and America. But this officer's account reveals that he and his comrades fought hard but suffered from waning morale in the months following the Allies' successful D-Day invasion of the European mainland on June 6, 1944. An American ground advance near Coutances, France, forced the unit to pull back. Here is the officer's amazing description of the chaotic retreat: No human account ever could describe the hardship, the sacrifice, the misery the men of this division alone experienced. Articles that just before our occupation were sold to the people and the German soldiers for 25 to 30 marks are now bought by the Americans for from 80 to 100 marksa great many articles are being made expressly for the American souvenir hunters and in almost all cases these are made of cheap imitation material., 28. The American Discipline is excellent, but the thirst for souvenirs appears to be growing., 29. [I] cannot understand the general desire if the American soldier for the Gott mit uns belt buckles and the German Iron Crosses[I] alone have sold more Iron Crosses to American soldiers than the Kaiser ever awarded to his subjects., Fianale Fappen, novelty shop owner in Neuenahr. Acute German shortages on the one hand, and on the other an Allied cornucopia which could provide an overwhelming level of firepower and a remorseless stream of replacements that could compensate for the grossest tactical btise. Image caption, An American eavesdropper . Isnt she crazy?, 34. They are like children and find their joy only in playing and eating which they do the whole livelong dayof course there are exceptions as in anything else, but some of these men are so far beneath, that their origin from the ape can be plainly seen upon their faces. American food policy in occupied Germany refers to the food supply policies enacted by the U.S., and to some extent its dependent Allies, in the western occupation zones of Germany in the first two years of the ten-year postwar occupation of . They refused to work and talked back to the officers, much to the annoyance of the officers and the concealed delight of the men., 8. The Americans were the chief complainers when the food was bad which was always., 9. Prisoners of war under American jurisdiction continue to send home glowing reports of good treatment. The march was called off, and all vehicles that were left were hidden in the dense bushes or in barns. "Everyone was in a good mood and eager to see action again happy that the preinvasion spell of uncertainty and waiting had snapped at last," the German SS officer wrote. "The American troops show much more consideration for the private rights of the inhabitants of the village than did the German troops. The Americans possessed a far higher proportion of officers to men: yet many more of those officers were employed in rear areas rather than with fighting formations. They are the wildest when they are after the girls. Interviewing war veterans, in marked contrast to Europeans who generally acknowledge respect for their officers, American private soldiers lavish regard upon good NCOs, but seldom reveal much for their unit commanders. Thus on the Moselle and in the siege of Metz, the Germans forced Patton, short on gas and ammunition, into practicing the type of piecemeal attack that he deplored in others, and leading Balck to speak of the poor and timid leadership of the Americans., Waffen ss GruppenfuhrerMax Simon likewise saw the American tactics as cautious and systematic:: The tactics of the Americans were based on the idea of breaking down a wall by taking out one brick at a time, he said, adding, Had you made such attacks . The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler's last major offensive in World War II against the Western . on the eastern front, where our anti-tank guns were echeloned in depth, all your tanks would have been destroyed. Patton himself admitted, While my attack was going forward by short leaps, it was not very brilliant., According to Yeide, even Pattons logistical feats before running out of gas and his boast that as of 14 August [1944] the Third Army has advanced further and faster than any army in history, totaling some 300 miles altogether, still put him well behind General Georg-Hans Reinhardt, who at start of Operation Barbarossa covered more than 500 miles towards Leningrad, and Otto von Knobelsdorff, who in six weeks managed 800miles, a feat which Knobelsdorff himself termed unique in Prussian-German military history., The book clearly takes its place in the school of the Allies won the war, but the Germans had the better army, a school that includes the Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, and the Brits Max Hastings, John Keegan, and John Ellis. His favored approach was the oblique one: Hold them by the nose and kick them in the rear, which in more polite textbook terms translates into pinning the enemy while the tanks attack his flanks. 1. To everyones surprise, they were pleasant towards the civilians. Do you get as much chocolate as I do! What would all this lead to, and what was being done about it? The American officer relationship with their subordinate soldiers was different from what they were accustomed to. On this background, it is only natural to ask what the Germans thought of him, and how he measures up to the Wehrmachts panzer generals, which is what Yeides Fighting Patton: George S. Patton Jr. But from the standpoint of military discipline it is a mob, pure and simple. Trusted Writing on History, Travel, and American Culture Since 1949, Many of our young girls have gone wrong Martha Strodter is engaged to an A-----. Through the Eyes of His Enemies. German certainly saw shortcomings in the ways the Allied used infantry . Such people would surely have found it easier to blame their defeat on an enemy relying on raw industrial might than to acknowledge his fighting skills. Of 1942 army volunteers, only 5 percent had chosen infantry or armor. Where in Europe, young men of each nation's elite have, in war, traditionally gravitated towards the "teeth arms" -- rifle and armored regiments -- America's elite in the 20th century have shown other enthusiasms. "On the whole, the Americans were willing to go at it more toughly than we were," declares Field-Marshal Lord Carver, in 1944-45 an armored brigade commander under Montgomery. This he did by sending out his staff officers to the front line units. The subordinate soldiers lacked iron discipline when it comes to their officers. The first group of roughly 50 men ordered to report to the camp theater that . BBC News, Itter, Austria Seventy years ago one of the most unlikely battles of World War Two took place, at Itter in the Austrian Alps. Returning the Spoils of World War II, Taken by Americans The men appear slouchy, the officers do not stand out from the men in appearance as they do in any European army. Dr. The document, titled Candid Comment on The American Soldier of 1917-1918 and Kindred Topics by The Germans, included interrogation and interview transcripts and intercepted letters from citizens that contained insight on post-war attitudes of the defeated nation. St. Martin's Press. "The Germans were willing to act -- always," said the British Major- General Brian Wyldbore-Smith. At every critical point, he stubbornly defended and delayed. Fear, shame, guilt, suicide: ordinary Germans at the end of the Second We learned a great deal less -- indeed, nothing at all -- about how the German soldier maintained an effective defense in Europe for 11 months under constant and unchallenged air attack, bombarded daily by devastating artillery concentrations, facing heavy odds, sustained by a fraction of the supplies and firepower available to the Allied soldier. 63. Always take the offensive. To understand the German soldiers of World War II, they argue, "we have to see the war, their war, through their eyes." This in turn requires the recovery of the "frames of reference" by which German soldiers oriented themselves and made sense of . Liddell Hart is not alone in challenging the conventional wisdom about the war. These shortcomings were well understood in Washington and London before the 1944 campaign began. and stretch my legs under a table full of Mother's cooking . Thus Blumenson stresses his uncanny ability to be in the right spot at the right time, and his instinctive feel for when something was up, perhaps best illustrated in the days leading up to the final German offensive. This led to a major defeat for the Germans, with 400,000 soldiers trapped in the Falaise pocket, and the capture of Paris on 25 August. For the American Army in northwest Europe, from beginning to end, the critical difficulties centered upon the performance of the combat infantry, the men at the very tip of the spear. They were bad prisoners since they wont talk or work. Thus many of the commanders Patton was to meet in France had participated in Mansteins retaking of Kharkov, a brilliant move designed to straighten out the German line, and in the subsequent Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, which resulted in irreplaceable German losses of materiel. They much prefer the Americans as troops of occupation. On Pattons performance in France, his campaign in Lorraine was certainly no beauty but might have been avoided altogether, if he and not the plodding Omar Bradley, his former subordinate, had been in overall charge of the American forces. Montgomery was repeatedly warned by his superiors in London about the scarcity of manpower. (A number of retired Wehrmacht generals became nato consultants.) I am glad and thankful we are having American troops occupying our town, otherwise we would have the same trouble as many of the larger cities., 17. Martha Strodter is engaged to an A-----. It was probably fortunate for the future of Western civilization, but greatly increased Eisenhower's difficulties, that few Allied soldier saw themselves for a moment as other than civilians temporarily in uniform, while their German counterparts possessed an uncanny ability to transform themselves from butchers and bank clerks into natural tacticians. A new song has already been composed, as follows: Wo steht denn das geschriben. In 1945, whole divisions were broken up for the same reason. Montgomery may have been cautious -- not least for the reason mentioned above -- but he was certainly not incompetent. They are a compilation of intercepted letters, and soldier comments during an interview, among others. But as participants, the Germans could hardly be expected to be unbiased observers of their own defeat. Paul Heinman, The Americans [prisoners] were the chief complainers when the food was bad, which was always. Pietro DParis, "[American] officers are not well dressed.All officers in the German army even when in active field service have one or more trunks and from time to time are allowed to leave for the purpose of obtaining uniforms. Michael Hoffman of Rech, The American army seems to me as fine a collection of individual physical specimens as I have ever seen. A spirit of military narcissism, nourished by such films as "The Longest Day," "A Bridge Too Far" and "The Battle of the Bulge," has perpetuated mythical images of the Allied and German armies. O n a crisp, clear morning 100 years ago, thousands of British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas . Volume. . The common soldier began to think. Often he would go and have a look-see himself. It was upon these troops that the overwhelming burden of battle, and of casualties, fell. Only 194 men walked out when they were finally rescued. Anton Bursch, shopkeeper in Echternach, 38. You Americans are not real the heart and soul in the war, are you? Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. . Several vehicles already were in flames. He even improved on Napoleons basic tenet activit, vitesse vitesse. This was true when they were attacking and when they were defending, when they had a local numerical superiority and when, as was usually the case, they were outnumbered, when they had air superiority and when they did not, when they won and when they lost.". But since our troops have been in action the opinion has changed, and he says that though Germany is at present a defeated nation, he believes that they would be victors in a war with any nation in the world with the exemption of the United States. In short, writes Yeide, German officers were prepared psychologically for the Allied invasion of France. If generals knew less tactics, they would interfereless.. To the Germans, he says, Patton was just one of many threats. Hoover scholars offer analysis of current policy challenges and provide solutions on how America can advance freedom, peace, and prosperity. One of the more absurd propaganda cliches of the war was the image of the Nazi soldier as an inflexible squarehead. The Germans considered the island undefendable and their Italian allies useless: Facing superior numbers, German forces still managed to put up a successful defensive battle, allowing them to get 60,000men plus heavy weapons across to the mainland, thanks to relatively weak delaying forces. There, he rounded up stragglers and deserters from other units and forced them to join the ranks of the beleaguered SS division as replacements for all those lost. [21] Nebraska State Historical. This was different from what we thought it would be like. Get the inside scoop on todays biggest stories in business, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley delivered daily. No one dared show himself out in the open anymore. Electricity plants are over burdened and the inhabitants get a feeble current so that the Herr Americans may burn 3 lamps in every latrine., From a letter from Hans Rohrl, Neuwied, 26. [I run] a store in Brohl, where among other things candy and cookies are sold to American soldiers[I can] make a profit because the American soldiers will pay the price that I must ask, while the civil population would not., 27. They have lots of money and buy foolishly. While acknowledging Pattons ability to maneuver, Ellis characterizes his dash across northern France as well as his earlier much overrated pursuit through Sicily as more of a triumphal procession than an actual military offensive.. The two-page Special IPW Report, titled The Odyssey of Goetz Von Berlightngen, is an English translation of a first-hand account written by an unnamed NaziSchutzstaffel (SS) staff officer in the presence of his American interrogators. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Transcript. On der Chevalleries achievement, Yeide quotes Pattons assistant intelligence officer Colonel Robert Allen: The enemys continued tactical control, despite the tremendous difficulties under which he operated, was a remarkable military feat. The French hate us because we took Alsace and Lerraine, but you only entered the war to make sure that England and France would be able to pay you the money you had lent them. Never tell people how to do things. Hitler's robots could never match the imagination and initiative of Allied soldiers on the battlefield. How the censors will rave when they read this letter, but I am only writing the truth. Free subscription>>, Please consider a donation to help us keep this American treasure alive. US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Copyright 1949-2023 American Heritage Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved. I have found your American Army the most honorable of all our enemies. A report on the tactical lessons of the Normandy campaign by the U.S. First Army declared: "It is essential that infantry in training be imbued with a bold, aggressive attitude. ", The American Discipline is excellent, but the thirst for souvenirs appears to be growing., [I] cannot understand the general desire of the American soldier for the Gott mit uns belt buckles and the German Iron Crosses[I] alone have sold more Iron Crosses to American soldiers than the Kaiser ever awarded to his subjects., Fianale Fappen, novelty shop owner in Neuenahr, Many of our young girls have gone wrong since the A----- are [unclear] is almost hard to believe of some of them. When Germans and Americans fought side by side in WW2 . . The notorious American infantry replacement system, by which men were arbitrarily posted to a numbered, non-territorial unit, and had no chance to build the loyalty possible in a British regiment, created deep unhappiness among many men, and contributed to the U.S. Army's alarming total of almost a million battle-fatigue cases in World War II. Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others. Since the war, far too much critical attention has been focused upon Allied generalship in northwest Europe, and far too little upon unit fighting performance. World War II was a conflict that involved virtually every part of the world during 1939-45. On the other hand, units containing specially selected personnel such as Airborne and Rangers exhibited an aggressive spirit from the start. They slam the doors so hard that the whole building shakes., 25. Since day before yesterday there has been crisis here too, among our workers; they all want to strike. There was a contrast between the attitude and behavior of most young Britons and Americans on the battlefield against those of their German counterparts, and this was not exclusively the product of the enemy's political fanaticism.

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