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  1. #1
    Senior Member Senior Member econ21's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fighting Power

    Interesting. A 100 to 250 ratio is much more dramatic. (The 20% difference between Germans and Western Allies sounds almost within a likely margin of error).

    I did a quick google of Dupuy's work and was puzzled by this:

    Quote Originally Posted by Military History Online
    In an effort to investigate the reason for consistent findings of German combat superiority, the group made a comparison of fighting strength versus overhead for German and American infantry divisions, based on tables of organization for 1943-44. This comparison showed that in a German infantry division, 59.83 of the personnel strength was involved in serving or manning weapons in a normal combat situation. The relative number in an American infantry division was 50.26 percent. This comparison "suggests" that "part" of the finding of overall German superiority "probably" was the result of better utilization of manpower.(80)
    If 100 Germans = 120 Allies refers to all soldiers, then the difference in personnel strength manning weapons surely explains all the difference in combat power. Given the numbers cited, you would have 60 Germans and 60 Allies manning weapons and so they would be equal, ceteris paribus.

    http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com.../chapter7.aspx
    Last edited by econ21; 07-10-2011 at 03:06.

  2. #2
    Clan Takiyama Senior Member CBR's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fighting Power

    Quote Originally Posted by econ21 View Post
    If 100 Germans = 120 Allies refers to all soldiers, then the difference in personnel strength manning weapons surely explains all the difference in combat power. Given the numbers cited, you would have 60 Germans and 60 Allies manning weapons and so they would be equal, ceteris paribus.
    Yeah it would explain part of it but bear in mind that US infantry divisions were supposed to be flexible formations that could have extra units attached, stuff like tank and tank destroyer battalions or heavy mortars etc. So it should be rather rare for a bare bone division to fight alone.

    A US WW2 era instructional video has an interesting comparison of the Garand v the BAR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfaL...ailpage#t=539s

    In other words one BAR gunner is equal to five riflemen. A MG42 might do two or three times the ROF in the LMG role, so one MG gunner could have (if we accept the perhaps simplistic argument of a linear effect from an increase in rate of fire) similar firepower as a full US infantry squad. Perhaps it is no wonder that they nearly doubled the number of BARs in companies after D-Day.

    So although US infantry had a superior rifle I would still say the Germans had a firepower advantage at the lower tactical level.

    I do believe there might also be some differences in defensive doctrines, although I don't know enough detail.



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