American Blitzkrieg: Loving the German War Machine to Death

[marmar]

from TomDispatch:



American Blitzkrieg
Loving the German War Machine to Death

By William J. Astore


“Why do people have a fixation with the German military when they haven’t won a war since 1871?” -- Tom Clancy


I’ve always been interested in the German military, especially the Wehrmacht of World War II. As a young boy, I recall building many models, not just German Panther and Tiger tanks, but famous Luftwaffe planes as well. True, I built American tanks and planes, Shermans and Thunderbolts and Mustangs, but the German models always seemed “cooler,” a little more exotic, a little more predatory. And the German military, to my adolescent imagination, seemed admirably tough and aggressive: hard-fighting, thoroughly professional, hanging on against long odds, especially against the same hordes of “godless communists” that I knew we Americans were then facing down in the Cold War.

Later, of course, a little knowledge about the nightmare of Nazism and the Holocaust went a long way toward destroying my admiration for the Wehrmacht, but -- to be completely honest -- a residue of grudging respect still survives: I no longer have my models, but I still have many of the Ballantine illustrated war books I bought as a young boy for a buck or two, and which often celebrated the achievements of the German military, with titles like Panzer Division, or Afrika Korps, or even Waffen SS.

As the Bible says, we are meant to put aside childish things as we grow to adulthood, and an uninformed fascination with the militaria and regalia of the Third Reich was certainly one of these. But when I entered Air Force ROTC in 1981, and later on active duty in 1985, I was surprised, even pleased, to discover that so many members of the U.S. military shared my interest in the German military. To cite just one example, as a cadet at Field Training in 1983 (and later at Squadron Officer School in 1992), I participated in what was known as “Project X.” As cadets, we came to know of it in whispers: “Tomorrow we’re doing ‘Project X’: It’s really tough …”

A problem-solving leadership exercise, Project X consisted of several scenarios and associated tasks. Working in small groups, you were expected to solve these while working against the clock. What made the project exciting and more than busy-work, like the endless marching or shining of shoes or waxing of floors, was that it was based on German methods of developing and instilling small-unit leadership, teamwork, and adaptability. If it worked for the Germans, the “finest soldiers in the world” during World War II, it was good enough for us, or so most of us concluded (including me). ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175208/tomgram%3A_william_astore%2C_the_u.s._military%27s_german_fetish/#more (scroll down a bit after clicking the link)

[TankLV]

1. It's because they were so INITIALLY successful!!!

And it took so long and so many lives to destroy...

If they had had a few more breaks in luck/timing/etc. - the outcome could have been far different...

Don't forget - ALMOST ALL OF THE GOOD NUCLEAR SCIENTIESTS - ACTUALLY ALLMOST ALL OF THE NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS - CAME FROM GERMANY!!!

THAT'S TRUE FOR BOTH THE SOVIETS AND US!!!

[Zynx]

3. The Germans were not without their own fair share of good luck and fortune.

We always hear about the more famous examples of good Allied luck (ex: The unusually bad Russian winter, the torpedo that happened to hit the rudder of the Bismarck, Hitler taking a sleeping pill on D-Day, etc), but the Germans got lucky more than a few times themselves. War is a strange business and a couple missed opportunities always do make the difference when the foes are relatively equally matched.

[lapfog_1]

2. Our military commanders would do well to listen to some old Al Stewart songs.

Before they lionize the German Military...

Roads to Moscow

They crossed over the border the hour before dawn
Moving in lines through the day
Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay
Waiting for orders we held in the wood - word from the front never came
By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away
Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees
Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and our knees
And all that I ever was able to see
The fire in the air glowing red silhouetting the smoke on the breeze
All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine
Smolyensk and Viyasma soon fell
By autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come - riding the wind like a bell
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill
Winter brought with her the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground while the sky filled with snow
And all that I ever was able to see
The fire in the air glowing red silhouetting the snow on the breeze
In the footsteps of Napoleon the shadow figures stagger through the winter
Falling back before the gates of Moscow,
Standing in the wings like an avenger
And far away behind their lines the partisans are stirring in the forest
Coming unexpectedly upon their outposts, growing like a promise
You'll never know, you'll never know
Which way to turn, which way to look, you'll never see us
As we're stealing through the blackness of the night
You'll never know, you'll never hear us
And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming
The morning road leads to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming
Two broken Tigers on fire in the night flicker their souls to the wind
We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin
It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun
At home it'll almost be spring
The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin
Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground
The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down
And all that I ever was able to see
The eyes of the city are opening now it's the end of the dream
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Now you can taste it in the wind, the war is over
And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border
And now they ask me of the time
That I was caught behind their lines and taken prisoner
"They only held me for a day, a lucky break", I say;
They turn and listen closer
I'll never know, I'll never know
Why I was taken from the line and all the others
To board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia
And it's cold and damp in the transit camp, and the air is still and sullen
And the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming
And I wonder when I'll be home again and the morning answers
"Never"
And the evening sighs and the steely Russian skies go on forever

[westerebus]

6. I haven't heard that song in a thousand years.

Seems like. LOL.

[theoldman]

4. The Germans had an excellent military and won many battles.

Their problem was that they were greatly outnumbered in most of the wars. They could win the battles but lost the wars. Just ask any old timer who fought in WWII. The German pilots were the best in the world in both WWI and WWII.

[The Magistrate]

5. An Excellent Piece, Sir: Spot-On In All Regards

[MisterP]

7. the idea of supremacy through technology is quite old (H. Bruce Franklin traces it back to Fulton)

other books are James William Gibson's "The Perfect War" and "Vietnam After Images," and John Hellemann's "American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam"; Guilio Douhet, Arthur Harris, and Billy Mitchell sold themselves as bomber messiahs that would win the war regardless of the situation on the ground, by blowing up "strategic targets" (i.e., cities)

DARPA and the Limited War Laboratory produced defoliants, "sensors," "people-sniffers," night vision, look-down radar, "scientific" propaganda, instant satellite communication with the Pentagon, computerized body counts and Hamlet Evaluation System, attempts at weather control, miniguns, laser-guided smart bombs, claymores, napalm, tear gas, space-age M-16s, flechette mortar rounds, and fleets of helicopter transports and gunships offering once-fantastic abilities; a decade later, techno-ultimacy would come from SDI. since a lot of SF writers came from this MIC (including the Heritage Foundation, of all things), you get Baen, Bova, Poul Anderson, and Pournelle works and anthologies with articles by Doan Van Toai, Stefan Possony, and David Horowitz originally printed in National Review, plus the goose-stepping little nuggets, "if you would have peace prepare for war," "Man is a violent animal," and "evil though it be, war is not the ultimate evil." T.R. Fehrenbach says that "war might be described as the rational act of a perhaps ultra-rational species," "War is, after all, as Reginald Bretnor wrote, something that men do," and calls for eternal warfare.

Heinlein is another expression of this fusion of fascistic proclamations on "human nature," the MIC, and SF: "Starship Troopers" reads like a Japanese fascist, with rule by soldiers bringing peace and prosperity to all, with all-wise, all-knowing officers giving mathematical proofs that flogging prevents drunk driving and street crime (since pain's a survival mechanism, perfected by evolution), that democracy is unviable because the herd will vote for self-indulgent dole, that aggression is a high art in the life-or-death struggle for galactic control, that "the most vicious" street gangs were so because of a lack of "spanking, or any punishment involving pain," that radiation lets a species compete on the galactic stage, that survival depends on combativeness, that "evolution" determines the best political system, that "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms," that morality is an elaboration of species survival (there being no innate moral sense or natural rights), that "Anything that conflicts with the survival instinct acts sooner or later to eliminate the individual and thereby fails to show up in future generations. This truth is mathematically demonstrable, everywhere verifiable; it is the single eternal imperative controlling everything we do," "that war and moral perfection derive from the same genetic inheritance," that "moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level," "Either we spread and wipe out the Bugs, or they spread and wipe us out." Furthermore, he adds that "Adversity is a strainer which refuses to pass the ill equipped" and that one essential quality of human nature can't be changed: the fighting spirit (pacifists being "sheep" killed off by the strong) ("Beyond This Horizon"); "The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time, and with utter recklessness," free humans are "the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting—and ablest—form of life in this section of space," "the human race has got to keep up its well-earned reputation for ferocity," "Beat the plowshares back into swords; the other was a maiden aunt's fancy" ("The Puppet Masters"); "competing and weeding takes place . . . or a race goes downhill" ("Stranger in a Strange Land"); "aggressive self-reliance necessary to a free human," the 20th century's "temporary mental aberrance" that allowed "reproduction by defectives," denial of medical treatment to un-sterilized "defectives" because "grim old Mother Nature, red of tooth and claw, invariably punished the damfools who tried to ignore Her or to repeal Her ordinances" ("Time Enough for Love").

[unc70]

8. I worked for senior German scientist after the war

Rocket science and physics. Paperclip scientist - high ranking civilian. Learned some interesting things back then. Wish I had taken better notes 40+ years ago.

[yellowcanine]

9. Yeah but the Germans tended to overengineer their weapons.

The Tiger II tank, for example, while rightfully greatly feared and formidable on the battlefield and the allies had nothing to match it, was a fuel hog and too big for many of the roads and bridges. Thus it ran out of fuel a lot and with its weight it tended to bog down in the mud. Part of the reason the Battle of the Bulge failed was because the German tanks literally ran out of gas.