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Which is in turn propagation of a popular propaganda myth. Polish cavalry never attempted any such quixotic manoeuvres. What they DID do was charge German infantry, win the field, then depart, leaving evidence to be paraded in front of journalists. The fact that German armour had since arrived to secure the area led to the "obvious" conclusion. This was further propagated by German and Soviet propaganda.
The German Army also contained one full horse-cavalry division in 1939. Cavalry still had a small amount of value of use as scouts, but the Germans, French, and Poles all had way too many men in horse-cavalry units.
German Army transport at the time of the Battle of France was mostly horse-drawn. The German Army itself was not yet totally mechanized. Actually, the infantry and the bulk of the German Army were largely structured as it had been in WWI.
The difference was that the cream of the German Army was concentrated in the several Panzer divisions who were mechanized and able to slice like a rapier and effect a breakthrough. The German Army followed as best they could and would generally attempt to classicaly encircle and mop-up the confused enemy forces.
The German Air-dominance was a massive boost as well as the Luftwaffe was able to help break up counterattacks and keep Allied ground-forces bewildered and terrified in 1940. Most French infantrymen told the same story afterwards of 'looking up and wondering where their air force was."
The French could actually not have helped out Hitler any more if they tried by limiting the Reichswehr to 100,000 actives after WWI and stripping the German Army of its offensive weaponry. As the French reduced the German army to such a low number, they forced the Germans to concentrate on developing maximum efficiency, and this tremendous efficiency carried over very well when the German army expanded in 1935. The Germans were limited numerically and with regards to what weapons they could develop, so they focused in improving their professionalism, training, and tactics, and preparing a comprehensive program to rapidly expand when their time came. The Germans also focused on developing high-grade weapons that they were not restricted from developing by the Versailles treaty, like a perfected sub-machine gun, as well as pursuing rocketry. The German High-Commander in the 1920's, Von Seeckt, also signed a secret deal with the USSR by which the Germans could build and train tanks, artillery, and planes deep in the heart of Russia, and in exchange, German NCOs would drill Russian troops. Von Seeckt himself was a brilliant organizational general who absolutely maximized the Reichswehr to its limits in the 1920's. Under his direction, every single Reichswher soldier was a hand-picked high-caliber officer in being who would suddenly be charged with training many fresh recruits in a short period of time when the orders to expand came.
Von Seeckt also created a 'Leadership Corps' in the Weimar Republic consisting of about 100'000 men to be outwardly sort of a CCC organization but really were more trainees in being. There were also many more 'secret reservists' in Germany. Von Seeckt's plan was that the Reichswehr would be able to immediately expand from 100,000 men to 400,000 men as each Reichswehr soldier would roughly receive 3 new recruits to train, and tank and air-forces would be reintroduced. Every man of the 100,000 Reichswehr was basically a drill-sergeant readly to receive an intake of new recruits.
The French intended to 'cripple' the capacity of Germany to make war by denying it Submarines, tanks, planes, etc. But really, preventing Germany from builiding these machines between 1920-1935 merely saved Germany from spending billions of Marks on machines that would be obsolete by 1940. By contrast, France invested billions on tanks, planes, and warships between 1920-1935, and the French Army would up having a large stockpile of obsolescent equipment and limited funds to upgrade their weaponry. There was a 'jump' in Military technology made evident by the time of the Spanish Civil War, and the French and Italians especially noticed how obsolete many of their tanks and biplanes were compared to some of the German monoplanes, for example.
The fact that the French kept the German army down for 15 years only served to give Hitler a completely fresh slate from which to build a new army, and he wasn't saddled with a large amount of obsolete equipment or a large officer population to oppose him at first. It was almost an ideal situation for Hitler as he could just build from the ground up.
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Strange that people still wish to believe that the Germans were military supermen, even after so many years of contradictory evidence.
Until WWII, the French were actually regarded as the overall superior soldiers and as the warrior race of Europe.
Only the Prussians were really held in high regard as soldiers by the rest of Europe. The Rhineland had a reputation for producing large numbers of cannon fodder mercenaries, but as being militarily indifferent. The South German states were regarded as generally soft and as producing poor soliders. There was sort of a huge cultural clash at the time between the aristocratic and rural Prussians and the rest of Germany.
The Prussian Army was stereotyped as very disciplined but as unflexible and as lacking 'dash' or 'elan.' The Prussians were oftern lampooned as Parade Ground soldiers who were exceptional at drill and following orders, but not necessarily that bold on the actual field of battle.
27 Aug 2010, 3:24 pm
Also the both of us share experiences of being treated like crap by society and if I remember correctly, didn't Hitler find it very difficult to get into the whole sex thing?
