[Webstral]

The Germans did not have an ideal solution. We know this because they didn't win. Every army throws together scratch teams as required by circumstances. The strategic and operational realities imposed on the German Army by the lunacy of the senior leadership compelled them to do things like mentioned above, despite the fact that the Germans understood the value of having replacements absorbed in an orderly fashion.

We were not so desperate. We behaved like we were desperate, but that's not the same as actually being desperate. There's a world of difference between combining companies of veterans and fleshing out a company of veterans with new arrivals.

Ike may not have had overwhelming numerical superiority, but he wasn't at a numerical disadvantage, either. We made the numbers picture much worse than it had to be by making awful choices, like attacking through the Hertgen Forest to no good end. Or continuing the offensive up the Italian boot. This is not to say, of course, that the Germans weren't saddled by awful decisions coming down from the top.

What we really should have learned from the Germans is a proper investment in training up front. New officers trained for a year before going into the line. NCOs trained for six months or more. I can't remember off the top of my head how long infantry privates trained. I know that number changed over the course of the war. Nonetheless, German infantry and infantry leadership arrived at the front better trained than our guys did. The qualitative problems led to an ongoing need on our part to throw yet more raw troops into the front and yet more after that because the poor SOBs kept getting themselves killed in few days' time. The Germans eventually reached the point at which they were obliged to send poorly-trained units to the front, but only after attrition had taken its toll on everybody. Warfare by the numbers is cruel, and we could have done much better given our numerical advantage overall.