Slitherine

Yes, I agree with you both, Scrapulous and Bee1976. There were multiple reasons, not just "how much marching they did in boot camp" kind of thing. I can't remember the title, but one book I read was by a sociology Professor who used primary sources (e.g. letters home; diaries) along with an analysis of the societal norms of the time to examine what made them fight so hard. One take away, which can be hard to see because German society is very different today, is the prevalent sense of duty to nation even if they weren't Nazis. That was the common thread that I remember that ran through all the German soldiers regardless of their background.

Hard to remember all the specifics because this is stuff I read in the 1990s.

Hello,

I will only mention two books from my shelf which in my view support the german idea of "Auftragstaktik" and "Esprit de Corps".

The first one is a comparison between US Forces and german Wehrmacht in WWII from Martin van Creveld: Kampfkraft (Combat Strength). His main point is that german soldiers where trained to think independently, i.e. german officers gave orders to their Non commissioned officers like: take that town by the end of the day. And the soldiers were motivated enough to decide on their own how to accomplish this - calling in Artillery or Luftwaffe support or flanking the whole town. Unlike let`s say soviet troops trying 10 times the same attack at the same spot - dying in numbers obeying the given order at any cost but without great success. These operational decisions relied heavy on good Sergeants - i.e. training and experience. This factor was reduced with the continuing losses during the war. He also mentions the ability of german troops to form so called Kampfgruppen (combat groups) comprised of different units or even branches for fulfilling special tasks.

The second one is a interesting sociological approach describing the 253rd Infantry Division from 39-45: Christoph Rass. Menschenmaterial (human ressource).
It was an ordinary unit deriving from the Rhineland comprised of mostly catholics. Every german division left a battalion at the home garisson for new mostly local replacements and the returning of wounded soldiers. So they could train and learn faster. Very interesting is on the one hand the description of this Esprit de Corps and on the other hand the difference between older and younger soldiers. Older ones - especially those who served in WWI - seemed a little bit more "human" while the younger ones who went through the Hitlerjugend were more reckless.

I don`t know whether these books are available in english - Creveld should be in my opinion.

So it is perfectly ok to se better stats in german infantry until midwar and to see a steady decline until the end of the war.

Bye.