Topic: Was General Montgomery really overrated in WW2?

Young Winston · February 24th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gator

The US Military had some 16 million people in the Service during World War II, with over 70 Infantry Divisons counting Airborne... the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 17th 24th 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 63rd, 65th, 66th, 69th, 70th, 71st, 75th, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st, 82nd, 83rd, 84th, 85th, 86th, 87th, 88th, 89th, 90th, 91st, 92nd, 93rd, 94th, 95th, 96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, 104th, 106th and the 1st Cav.which was used as Infantry.

Not too shabby if you ask me.

By the time 1944 rolled around the US Military was just hitting its stride as far as training and combat operations, and had the War drug on the US Military would have grown even more to meet the need.

Yes, they had plenty of personnel but well trained, experienced combat troop strength was under great pressure in the later stages of the war in Europe and in the Pacific. You must read a book called "The sharp end of war" i think it is. I'll look it up.

Part of the problem of the Okinawa battle (and there were plenty of others) was the lack of experienced US combat troops due to the horrible type of fighting that took so many casualties in the Pacific theatre leading up to it. Yes ,they had plenty of fighting men but alot had little or no fighting experience at the time Okinawa. As a result their were higher caualties, many with battle fatigue (it was huge number).