Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Stronger?

This is coolbert:

"Defense is the stronger form of combat"

Defense easier to do, you can accomplish more with less.

As was the case with the German 352nd "static" division defending Omaha Beach on 6 June, and also as was the case previously at Dieppe during Jubilee!

The German defender at Dieppe also second-class troops armed in a second-class manner. As related by Colonel John Hughes-Wilson in his book: "MILITARY INTELLIGENCE BLUNDERS".

"The actual unit [German] at Dieppe . . . was in reality the 571st Infantry Regiment of the 302 Division, a category two division consisting largely of Poles [?] and middle-aged ethnic Germans equipped with a motley mixture of horses, bicycles, captured Czech and French guns and anything else that the harassed Quartermaster staff at Wehrmacht GHQ West in Paris  could scrounge from Berlin."

Those "Poles" not necessarily POLES but more likely ethnic Germans!

Haase the German command at the scene also it seems a superior officer who knew his stuff well and had made the proper calculations, assumptions and preparations commensurate with his MTT-T considerations. [Mission, Troops, Training - Time]

Haase having a SINGLE captured French tank in his inventory, that tank CEMENTED INTO THE SEA WALL having a field of firing ranging down the length of the beach at Dieppe.

That "category two division" German army troops at Dieppe having arrayed against it the VERY FINEST SOLDIERS THE BRITISH EMPIRE COULD MUSTER. British army and marine Commando and Canadian Army units comprised of the physically best and most fittest individuals trained to the highest state of perfection, and in the case of the Commando, also forces with a pretty marked degree of combat experience.

And from the caption of an image as found in the magazine "AFTER THE BATTLE"  Number # 48 a pile of "surrendered arms" indicative of second-rate troops armed in a second-rate manner.

"Nice collection of surrendered arms stacked beside the road. The second rate status of these troops can be gauged by the fact there are no MG42's - - only older models, the MG34 and obsolete MG13 and MG30(t)."

From an acknowledged authority some comments on the MG-34 and MG-42 German general purpose machine gun:

"The MG-34, according to my machine gun collecting friends, is a far better (but more complex) piece of machinery than the MG-42. MG 42 used more stampings and was easier to manufacture. I think the barrel change on the 42 was much faster, though."

Those German second-rate troops using second-rate weaponry BUT commanded by superior commanders according to a well thought out plan, soldiers employed in a manner according to their ability CAN give a very good account of themselves.

coolbert.




1 comment:

maximex said...

It is (was) the two countries that are at the top of the arms industry.

The Soviet Union and Germany.
Soviet weapons also work in poor conditions, because the end result had not been finalized, the only appropriate.

Large individual pioneers including Samuel Colt and Aimo Lahti.

Western arms industry suffered a measure of precision manufacturing processes.