German General Kurt van Hammerstein-Equard

A notable quote from this officer who died from cancer during WWII:

"I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent -- their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy -- they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent -- he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief."

:p:D

John Boyd (OODA Loop) never wrote a book, but he did do long briefings with slides. One of the reports he used when working on that stuff was an interview by the US Army of Grman BG Herman Balck. Balck fought mainly on the Russian front and was credited with being the best tactician OF WWII.

During that US Army interview he was asked something technical about German tanks. He responded, "I don't know anything about tanks." By way of clarification he stated that his principal concern was getting inside the enemy's mind and putting him on the defensive. And keeping him there. He ran rings around the Russians. He wrote one book late in life, "Order in Chaos". There is another coming out on Amazon shortly.

Martin van Creveld wrote a book titled "Fighting Power" which rated the Wehrmacht a substantially more effective force than any of the Allies.

Thank God Hitler was an idiot and made idiot mistakes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dienekes

John Boyd (OODA Loop) never wrote a book, but he did do long briefings with slides. One of the reports he used when working on that stuff was an interview by the US Army of Grman BG Herman Balck. Balck fought mainly on the Russian front and was credited with being the best tactician OF WWII.

During that US Army interview he was asked something technical about German tanks. He responded, "I don't know anything about tanks." By way of clarification he stated that his principal concern was getting inside the enemy's mind and putting him on the defensive. And keeping him there. He ran rings around the Russians. He wrote one book late in life, "Order in Chaos". There is another coming out on Amazon shortly.

Martin van Creveld wrote a book titled "Fighting Power" which rated the Wehrmacht a substantially more effective force than any of the Allies.

Thank God Hitler was an idiot and made idiot mistakes.

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The Wehrmacht was more "combat effective" at certain unit levels, but that's nearly irrelevant in the grand scheme. Part of it had to do with the relative freedom of initiative that division leaders on down had. The General Staff did the high-level planning, which didn't work so well in fluid situations, as evidenced by the number of German armies completely wiped off the map (which was Hitler's fault in some cases, but not all).

I think the primary advantage of the German army was their boldness. A lot of their equipment was inferior in the early days of the war, yet they conquered huge swaths of territory by acting quickly and decisively--not standing and fighting. Had they conducted each campaign more cautiously they might very well have started losing much earlier in the war. The one early mistake they made was allowing the allies to escape at Dunkirk.