Jim D Burns
Posts: 2759
Joined: 2/25/2002
From: Salida, CA.
Status: online
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quote:
ORIGINAL: rfrizz
Back on BftB, I will ask this: for the short-term engagements in the game, were there any replacements? Look at the historical record to see if this was even a factor? If not, why sweat it?
Replacements were pretty constant throughout the campaign in Europe for the US. There was only one dry spell nearing the end of the Normandy campaign when a lot of AAA units had to be cannibalized to take up the slack (planners hadn’t anticipated the massive grinding attrition), but that was quickly sorted out and up until Hurtgen forest, units were kept at reasonable strength levels with a constant flow of replacements.
I think I read an account that stated some divisions that landed on the beaches of Normandy had replaced their paper strength two or three times over by the time the Bulge rolled around. Hurtgen Forest was a pretty bad meat grinder for some of the divisions there, so some units were pulled out of the line and sent to the Ardennes for a longer than normal refit period. Normally units only needed a few days off the line to top up strength, but Hurtgen was a bloodbath.
I know the British were having real issues with manpower by late 1944, they had already streamlined their vital/non-vital industries and culled out most of the available manpower, so their replacement system was nowhere near as flush with men as the Americans. They had even begun to cannibalize actual combat formations in the field to create pools of manpower to top off other units. Even with the hardships they were suffering, they did manage to keep the units at the tip of the spear in decent shape… barely.
As to the situation at the battle for the Bulge, I’d say replacements were far greater than normal, as most units started that battle off with lots of their men away in the rear on leave. So there were tens of thousands of soldiers in the immediate rear areas available to be grabbed up and thrown into the line.
Lots of the small ad-hoc battlegroups thrown up into roadblock positions that slowed the Germans advance down for those first few critical days were made up with a lot of guys that had been trying to get back to their units on the now non-existent front line. They were added to the regular combat formations available at hand to beef them up and given names like Task Force Harper, Team Cherry, etc.
Jim
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