Why is so much made of the fighting ability of German soldiers in WWI and WWII?

Question

I understand the details about those European wars, and the ones that preceded them. What I'm curious about is the specifics as to why German soldiers had that reputation? Was it their better weaponry, training, or what?

Answer 1

Superior discipline, a 'holy war' mentality, strong/athletic genetics, a history of innovative weaponry and good command. Thank God the world did something about those bastards.

Answer 2

Training.

Before WWI, the germans wher know for iron discipline, harsh punishments, and high morale, which was what was needed to win the wars of the day.

However, After WWI, the german army was completely reorganized.
The new Reichswehr was limited to a 100 000 man force. The germans, however, circumvented this by training what was in reality 100 000 officer cadets.
Each reichswher private was trained to act independently, and, in case of war, become a sergant in a conscript platoon.
The reichswehr put a lot of effort into improving training and organization metods.
When the Nazi party came to power, and denounced the Versailes treaty, they buildt the new Wehrmacht on the experiences of the Reichwehr.

As a result, the german soldier in 1939 was trained to much higher standard than those of other nations. The germans emphasised low level leadership and initiative; A sergeant should be able to make the decisions for his own squad, rather than be reliant on orders form the company commander.
They also emphasized camaraderie and unit bonding, by recruiting units from the same districts, and similar tricks.

When it came to technology, the germans did not have a huge technological edge in the beginning stages of the war; Russian tanks where better, and a bolt action rifle is a bolt action rifle.
However, they where very efficient at improving their weaponry, and by 1943 had a distinct advantage.
Their main strength was, however, the efficient employment of these arms; While the soviet T43 was a superior tank, and the KV 1 was untouchable up until the introduction of the Tiger, neither had a radio set, and where used in a disorganized fashion, allowing the "weaker" german tanks to chew them up through coordination and speed.

Over all, their WWII successes was due to good training, confidence, and a well organized force, lead by well educated officers.

Answer 3

They had some amazing military commanders who treated battles and war as a science. In the Second World War the propaganda also boosted German considerations into devoutly believing what they were doing was right. Many Germans had no Knowledge of the real truth behind the concentration camps... Also Germany had been ripped apart following WWI and they were getting back their sense of pride - that was a big part of it.

As far as technology went many of their weapons were superior to those of the allies: The Tiger and Panther tanks were amazing creations for their time as were ME109s. On that subject, one of their best known weapons the MP40 sub machine gun which again was superior in so many ways to Allied guns was probably one reason they lost Stalingrad. Stalingrad was the true birthplace of modern urban warfare and due to the long magazine of the MP40 it could not be fired from a prone position unlike the russian smg with a drum magazine. This made the German soldiers a bigger target and although they had tank/air superiority the troops despite better training and supposed weaponry were at a huge disadvantage for this method of warfare and it was troops that were needed to finally take the city.

(To answer the comment above: I believe the first troops to enter Berlin were Russian. Sorry to rain on your parade mate)

Answer 4

Often times it was their organization. When the German Army of 1939 invaded France, they had fewer tanks and the tanks they did have were of lesser quality than those of the French Army. They had simply learned how to better utilize them. The result was the Blitzkrieg and the reputation which went with it. (Nothing builds a reputation like success.

Still, remember that at the end of the day it was the American soldier who was standing in Berlin.)

Answer 5

Yes they had lots of fighting experience and superior technology from their brilliant engineers and scientists. Have you ever heard the term German Engineering? Thankfully Einstein was Jewish and fled Germany before he could be forced to work for the Germans or there may be a completely different world today.

Answer 6

career infantrymen in an excellent style of the WWII combatant armies served in both wars. The senior officials on both facet in WWII were in simple terms about all WWI veterans. the domicile safeguard in Britain, Germany, Japan, and u.s. all commonly used adult males nicely into their late 50s and (in Germany and u.s.) 60s, such an excellent style of of those adult males were veterans. that's a fantastically unhappy actuality (a minimal of interior the united states of a) that the generals in any given warfare were capitans interior the finest warfare.

Answer 7

They were so effing good that the U.S. Army is based on the German model.

Answer 8

It was their mindset imposed on by their leadership, weaponary was the same, but they did make leaps in them in both wars. Idk you'll get a lot better answers I guess lol

Answer 9

they were better trained, both physically and mentally, meaning diciplined and focused.