New German Defence Doctrine in 1945?

[John Kettler]

Daviswilson,

Welcome aboard! Judging from your first post, you now know why we lovingly refer to the CM games as E-crack. Enjoy your addiction, and let us know if we can help reinforce it!

Regards,

John Kettler

[Aragorn2002]

I've ordered Tissiers book and will report on what he considers to be the new German defence doctrine of 1945 in a couple of weeks, although I expect we came pretty close to analysing it in this thread.

[Aragorn2002]

Well, the essence of this new defensive doctrine seems to have been:

1. Pulling back the troops, above all the infantry, from the expected massive enemy artillery preparation, and so preserve their fighting capability.

2. Decive the enemy as to the position and deployment of the German positions.

3. Nullify the basic elements of the enemy's attack and fire plans, and to force the enemy into new and costly preparations for the attack.

4. Win time.

I will post more details, in case anyone is interested in them.

[Cuirassier]

I don't know if the things you've listed are exactly new. That is just German defense doctrine of defense in depth, which has been practiced since WWI.

[Der Alte Fritz]

No all of those things were used from winter '43 onwards so are not new. The Germans adopted linear trench systems at this point exactly to meet items 2-4. One objective of the German command was to identify the main Russian point of attack and then they could thin out the lines in quiet areas and switch the troops to the area under attack. But by 1945, the lines had shortened so much compared to being in the Ukraine and Belorus that they could not do this anymore.

[Cuirassier]

Withdrawing to avoid enemy artillery fire, deceiving the enemy as to the deployment of forces and economy of force (thinning out non-threatened sectors and just screening) were part of German doctrine in WWI. Sure some of these ideas were improved upon or adjusted for WWII requirements, but the basic ideas came before.

[Der Alte Fritz]

That is perfectly correct, the Battle of the Somme seems to have been the turning point as the Germans suffered heavy casualties pro rata during the latter stages. Early WW2 the Germans used a strong-point defence which switched in late '43 into a trench line defence to make these things easier to accomplish.