Could the US army have gone through the ordeal the Germans faced on the Eastern Front, and survived?

Question

Outnumbered, unequipped for the weather? Fighting against other, more numerous, better equipped enemies on other fronts? In spite of the brutality, the Wehrmacht showed splendid resilience.

Has anybody ever seen -50 weather? I live in Alaska, and it's tough putting up with it when you have a warm house to live in, and good clothes. Whenever I go out in extreme cold, I wonder "how did the Germans live and fight with this kind of cold, in summer uniforms?".

They survived winter 1941, Stalingrad and Kursk. Any normal army would have folded after the Moscow battles

to jeeper- ever heard of 3rd Kharkov?

yes, geegee, but it was a depleted German army, and the Russians were the people who really did defeat the Germans.

Answer 1

No, and for one reason: tanks.

The Russians had the T-34, which was possibly the best medium tank in the world. And they had them in large quantities.

Now, the Germans had anti-tank weapons such as the panzerfaust, that could penetrate the T-34's armor.

The Americans, on the other hand, wouldn't have been able to do anything to the Russian tanks with their bazookas. The poor saps in Korea who got stuck fighting T-34s with bazzokas found out real fast that the shells would just bounce off.

And the American Sherman couldn't have done much better; it was too lightly armored and armed (though it was still a decent tank)

The Russians also had the ability to win a war of attrition; they had more men, more planes, and more tanks. Even though they were inferrior, they probably would have ground down the US Army.

Answer 2

If the German army didn't have to go and bail out Mussolini out of the Greece fiasco and could have started the campaign a month earlier then it might have turned out differently.
During WW2 we had a massive manufacturing capability, so we would probably be able to hold out much longer and Truman might have dropped the A-Bomb on them

Answer 3

Sqrunt. 0.5 squid 0.5 grunt, nickname given to military corpsmen who served with marine infantry enamel fairy for Dental Techs SkyPilot for Chaplin All Marine warrent officers ars reported as Gunner Butter Bars for 1st Lt/Ensigns

Answer 4

I hope we never have to find out! That 1st winter in Korea was bad enough! Although we had to withdraw; it wasn't because our troop weren't willing to fight, in spite of having no winter clothes, were running out of ammunition & food, they were willing to stick it out, but were withdrawn for their own safety & for no other reason. I think that Americans can hold their own against almost any odds, if you remember, we did defeat the German army, an army that was combat proved, while our army was not but, we didn't give up & a lot of that was during some of the coldest months of the war.

Answer 5

Evidently you have never heard of Battle of the Bulge or the actions of the 101st AirBorne in Bastogne.

Where out numbered, poorly equipped, surrounded and in horrible winter weather conditions the 101st refused to surrender.

NUTS !!!!!!!!

Answer 6

I doughty it.our soldiers had a hard time in the
Ardeen try into keep from freezing.
The Russian's were raised in bad snow country.
We wouldn't have air support
Our tanks would be of no use.
I suggest you contact a Army sight to ask.

Answer 7

You make some good points, but our ace in the hole was air superiority. We would've decimated the waves of Russian infantry and tanks...something the Luftwaffe couldn't do.

Answer 8

The world will never know as it is 100% hypothetical.
It is like asking if The Chinese could have won the 2nd Punic War

Answer 9

call the people at the history channel or discovery or something - tell them you'd like to see this on "battlefield detectives" i think it's called -- it's a fascinating question but no layman is going to give you a good answer, it would need to be studied from many different angles in great detail

good luck

Answer 10

not if everything was equal,the Germans were just not equipped for it