I like how people, in the face of the extremely simple and long-proven reality that artillery is the prime casualty-inflicter of the war, attempt ad-hominem attacks on me by trying to claim I am "unsourced" when a simple Google search of "Casualties in Normandy caused by mortars" reveals something like this:
https://www.google.com.ph/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Casualties+in+normandy+caused+by+mortars
Which literally has "(mortars caused three-quarters of American casualties in Normandy)." in the page description of half the search results.
Really, it's tiring when people resort to personal attacks when a simple Google search would already show a mountain of evidence that the vast majority of casualties were caused by artillery; and that people keep clinging to the long-discredited notion that it was tanks, airpower, or all the neat and shiny toys that did most of the killing when these plainly were not the prime killer during the war.
But nah, let's instead pretend that the cause of 75% of US casualties and 80% of British casualties in Normandy is "relatively" unimportant because someone likes claiming I'm "unsourced" because it disproves his very wrong version of the war.
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Also, the idea that American Tank Destroyers were ineffective is simple German fanboyism regurgitated in long discredited sites like Achtung Panzer. The Tank Destroyer battalions - prior to being issued with the M36 Jackson - in fact notched a kill ratio equalling the German Heavy Tank battalions. Indeed, the kill record for Wittman's Tiger action at Villers-Bocage (7 real tanks) is equalled by a single M10 Tank Destroyer fighting with Team Desorby during the Bulge.
The Tank Destroyers in fact did their jobs at the tactical level. Any failing of the TDs was purely at the brigade level.
It's very apparent that you buy into myths of German armor superiority when in reality the US armored arm notched a 3:2 kill rate in its favor based on actual US Army studies, as revealed by Forczyk in his actual scholarly studies. It wasn't until Belton Cooper's "Death Traps" (a crappy memoir by a rear-area officer who never actually saw tank vs tank combat) that is became fashionable to pretend that US Armor was consistently overmatched by the Germans, when in reality US Armored Divisions won pretty much every single battle against the German Panzers even when the Germans had numerical superiority and fought in weather that precluded deployment of airpower.
But nah, cue more usual German "the dog ate my homework" excuses like "But the Americans had unlimited tanks!" (when they didn't and in fact had fewer tanks in some of the bigger battles), or "Airpower is too strong!" (even though many of the battles were fought without any air power helping the Americans and fighter-bombers accounted for less than 10% of tanks lost anyway), or "I ran out of fuel so it doesn't count!" (ignoring the Germans happily counted kills early in Barbarossa of Soviet tanks without fuel).
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Actually, studies in fact showed that frontline infantrymen on both sides generally refused to fire on the enemy, period:
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/on-killing.html
"In World War II and before, only 15 to 20 percent of soldiers fired their weapons at enemy soldiers in view, even if their own lives were endangered. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Grossman, a military historian, psychologist and teacher at West Point, builds upon the findings of Gen. S. L. A. Marshall in Men Against Fire (1978) and confirmatory evidence from Napoleonic, Civil and other wars. “Throughout history the majority of men on the battlefield would not attempt to kill the enemy, even to save their own lives.”
This is again why techniques were developed in Vietnam wherein soldiers were trained to fire on reflex, which in turn led to the rise of PTSD because soldiers were finding themselves "forced" (by reflex) to kill.
Again, people really need to drop some very bad misconceptions about war and that infantrymen are just robots who fired at the enemy as ordered. Most infantrymen in fact refused to cross the line they considered to be murder.
Accounts by junior infantry officers on all sides are in fact rife with reports of how just a few men were carrying the load for the rest of the squad/platoon.
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Did you notice the bit where I explained that small arms minutae is less important than squad composition and philosophy? Because it's rather blatantly clear that the people pushing for "small arms detailing" haven't a clue on how individual squads and platoons actually fought in each army.
Really, that another poster here decided to quote Patton to try and overturn the simple reality that the Germans had a radically different squad-level combat philsophy - centered around the LMG - goes to show that people need to read up more on how squads actually fought and used their weapons before making comments on how small arms should be detailed in the game. A pithy throwaway quote by a General for journalists is no match for the countless accounts and documentation on how the Germans actually fought at the squad level - which is pretty damn well on the defensive thanks to their LMG-centric approach.
https://www.google.com.ph/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Casualties+in+normandy+caused+by+mortars
Which literally has "(mortars caused three-quarters of American casualties in Normandy)." in the page description of half the search results.
Really, it's tiring when people resort to personal attacks when a simple Google search would already show a mountain of evidence that the vast majority of casualties were caused by artillery; and that people keep clinging to the long-discredited notion that it was tanks, airpower, or all the neat and shiny toys that did most of the killing when these plainly were not the prime killer during the war.
But nah, let's instead pretend that the cause of 75% of US casualties and 80% of British casualties in Normandy is "relatively" unimportant because someone likes claiming I'm "unsourced" because it disproves his very wrong version of the war.
===
Also, the idea that American Tank Destroyers were ineffective is simple German fanboyism regurgitated in long discredited sites like Achtung Panzer. The Tank Destroyer battalions - prior to being issued with the M36 Jackson - in fact notched a kill ratio equalling the German Heavy Tank battalions. Indeed, the kill record for Wittman's Tiger action at Villers-Bocage (7 real tanks) is equalled by a single M10 Tank Destroyer fighting with Team Desorby during the Bulge.
The Tank Destroyers in fact did their jobs at the tactical level. Any failing of the TDs was purely at the brigade level.
It's very apparent that you buy into myths of German armor superiority when in reality the US armored arm notched a 3:2 kill rate in its favor based on actual US Army studies, as revealed by Forczyk in his actual scholarly studies. It wasn't until Belton Cooper's "Death Traps" (a crappy memoir by a rear-area officer who never actually saw tank vs tank combat) that is became fashionable to pretend that US Armor was consistently overmatched by the Germans, when in reality US Armored Divisions won pretty much every single battle against the German Panzers even when the Germans had numerical superiority and fought in weather that precluded deployment of airpower.
But nah, cue more usual German "the dog ate my homework" excuses like "But the Americans had unlimited tanks!" (when they didn't and in fact had fewer tanks in some of the bigger battles), or "Airpower is too strong!" (even though many of the battles were fought without any air power helping the Americans and fighter-bombers accounted for less than 10% of tanks lost anyway), or "I ran out of fuel so it doesn't count!" (ignoring the Germans happily counted kills early in Barbarossa of Soviet tanks without fuel).
===
Actually, studies in fact showed that frontline infantrymen on both sides generally refused to fire on the enemy, period:
http://www.citizen-soldier.org/on-killing.html
"In World War II and before, only 15 to 20 percent of soldiers fired their weapons at enemy soldiers in view, even if their own lives were endangered. Lt. Col. (Ret.) Grossman, a military historian, psychologist and teacher at West Point, builds upon the findings of Gen. S. L. A. Marshall in Men Against Fire (1978) and confirmatory evidence from Napoleonic, Civil and other wars. “Throughout history the majority of men on the battlefield would not attempt to kill the enemy, even to save their own lives.”
This is again why techniques were developed in Vietnam wherein soldiers were trained to fire on reflex, which in turn led to the rise of PTSD because soldiers were finding themselves "forced" (by reflex) to kill.
Again, people really need to drop some very bad misconceptions about war and that infantrymen are just robots who fired at the enemy as ordered. Most infantrymen in fact refused to cross the line they considered to be murder.
Accounts by junior infantry officers on all sides are in fact rife with reports of how just a few men were carrying the load for the rest of the squad/platoon.
===
Did you notice the bit where I explained that small arms minutae is less important than squad composition and philosophy? Because it's rather blatantly clear that the people pushing for "small arms detailing" haven't a clue on how individual squads and platoons actually fought in each army.
Really, that another poster here decided to quote Patton to try and overturn the simple reality that the Germans had a radically different squad-level combat philsophy - centered around the LMG - goes to show that people need to read up more on how squads actually fought and used their weapons before making comments on how small arms should be detailed in the game. A pithy throwaway quote by a General for journalists is no match for the countless accounts and documentation on how the Germans actually fought at the squad level - which is pretty damn well on the defensive thanks to their LMG-centric approach.
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. Artillery was still incredibly important, and not having it would put a position in a very precarious position indeed. Far more precarious than if they didn't have semi or full-auto rifles (relative to bolt-actions), that's for sure!
