German firepower

[Huib Versloot]

I thought every German child was required to be in the Hitler Youth? I know that political indoctrination carries a lot of weight but, that did not fully translate to thus; "a morale of 8 or more" can be justified. I've watched plenty of film showing many of those HJ being taken prisoner with the tears fresh on their cheeks. I've also seen the war film of defeated German troops marching in formation to their POW pens.
I still have a problem with the higher morale ratings for the German Paras. An 8 German morale over a 5 Allied morale can be quite devastating. Especially, when the 8's are defending in built up terrain.

RR

I based the rating on what actually happened in the battle for the Rhineland. So historical perfomance and tenacity, that far exceeded what anyone expected. Even some FJ veterans themselves who joined autumm 1944 said they were badly trained, so perception and actual performance seems a complete contradiction.

A good example is the interview with Gunther Brabeck, platoon leader in 10/FJR 17, a former pilot. He is very critical about the combat readiness of the 6th FJD. Then again, if you look at the performance of the 6th FJD from Dec 1944 until May 1945 it is more than outstanding. I've posted this video link before. The first veteran is a Polish officer, then Brabeck and later two Canadian Veterans. For those who speak German, Brabeck has some interesting things to say. Unfortunately he passed away 2 years ago.

http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=7...7200&hl=nl

Ed is right that virtually every kid in Germany had to be in HJ, so that doesn't explain everything. The 1927 genereration was the very long in HJ and the Fallschirmtruppen often got the best men and equipment. Kurt Student and his staff also seemed to have been very good at mixing the old and new into the new formations in the autumm of 1944. They made sure that a lot of troops got battle experience right away. Sometimes this led to pure waste of lives for questionable strategical goals (Kapelsche Veer, Wanssum Bridgehead and some attacks made near Arnhem late 1944). Still this doesn't explain it all, I know.
Like I said earlier to me it is one of the most interesting questions of WW2.


Giving the Allies morale 5 and the FJ 8 would not be fair indeed and would add greatly to the problem that started this thread. We'll use 7 vs 8, or maybe better 7 vs 7-8+. So in the scenario some German troops now have lower morale than the Allies, while others have higher.

Good to get some feedback on this forum. Will publish some more what David and I (basically it is his scenario) achieve in this one. for us it is important as we have many scenarios in this region planned and these would to some extent (not all are actually in the Reichswald) have the same problems.