Berlichtingen Posted January 25, 2000 Share Posted January 25, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>allied forces were pulled out becaue they COULD be. Germans had no such luxury, hence were contstrained to fight on with much reduced numbers.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> True, but from past proformance, Allied troops did not function well at that level of loss. Allied troops were also pulled because they were concidered combat ineffective at that level of loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertFox Posted January 25, 2000 Share Posted January 25, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Need to go back further. The trend was started by Fredrick the Great <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah right, but without Scharnhorst and Moltke the prussian army reform never would have taken place Helge ============== Sbelling chequed wyth MICROSOFT SPELLCHECKER - vorgs grate! - The DesertFox - Email: desertfox1891@hotmail.com WWW: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/2930/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berlichtingen Posted January 25, 2000 Share Posted January 25, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Yeah right, but without Scharnhorst and Moltke the prussian army reform never would have taken place<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> No arguement. I'm just saying that it started with Fredrick. Scharnhorst & Moltke refined it. The creation of the Stosstruppen in WWI refined it even more. BTW, anyone interested in reading some really good accounts of German initiative should read Rommel's Infantry Attack or Guerilla (can't remember the author). Infantry Attack is about Rommel's experiences in WWI and Guerilla is the story of Lettow-Vorbeck in Afrika in WWI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zigster Posted January 26, 2000 Share Posted January 26, 2000 Here's a good example of "automatons" at work... September 8, 1939, near Ilza, Poland. A heavy Polish counterattack is in progress. I/Flakregiment No. 22 finds itself in the front line. They are positioned badly and pinned down by numerous machine guns. A single 20mm Flak gun is ordered to position itself on a prominent hill on the right flank... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> "Obediently the crew of 5 Battery's No. 3 gun, led by Section Leader Maurischat, manhandled their weapon on to a knoll just behind the vital hill. But from here its field of fire was still limited, so the bombardiers, rushing their 16-cwt. charge down its slope, tried to get its momentum to carry it up the slope of Hill 246 opposite. Half-way up it stuck. Down ran the observation officers and, putting their weight behind it, forced the gun up to just short of the summit. With everything ready and the magazines loaded, gunner Kniehase lined up his target with the observer's telescope and took his seat. Then, choosing the moment when the Poles were reloading their nearest machine gun, officers and men pushed the gun to the pinnacle and it opened up. Forty shots were fired, straight into the target. Almost at once, Kniehase and his gun were behind the hill again. Not a moment too soon, for seconds later the summit was lashed with fire. The performance was repeated eight times. And each time one enemy machine gun or anti-tank post was reduced to silence, to the cheers of the troopers who for hours had been pinned down in the undulating scrubland, unable to inch forward or back.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Later that evening, another Polish attack was repulsed. As the beleaguered Flak crews prepared to receive the next attack, two 60 cm searchlights arrived at the front... <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR> To Seidenath, the two 60-cm searchlights came as a Godsend. Carefully he arranged them so they could illuminate the battery's foreground from either side. The night was pitch black. Around 23.30 hours Polish words of command were heard just in front of the German positions. The message to get ready to fire was passed in a whisper from one crew to the next. Then the right-hand searchlight was switched on. As the enemy ducked under its glare, the flak hammered forth. After three seconds the light went out, to be replaced by the left one. So they alternated, changing their positions during the moments of extinction. Before the Poles could aim the machine guns at the shining orbs they had always gone out. In this way, after a quarter of an hour's battle, this attack too was beaten off...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> From the Luftwaffe War Diaries, by Cajus Bekker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Captain Foobar Posted January 26, 2000 Share Posted January 26, 2000 Hey Steve, I want some of those searchlight thingies! hehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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