Consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union for the Pacific War

[Raferty]

I have to disagree. OTL Monty in '44 was well aware that Britain's manpower resources were running low, which is one reason he tried an awful lot of expensive battles using armour rather than infantry. AA regiments were being disbanded and sent to France as undertrained infantrymen. Also Britain's top military commanders had all come through the Great War, the first war in centuries that had involved major loss of British & Imperial soldiers, sailors & airmen and the cost to the nation of those suffering life-changing wounds; I struggle to think of any British commander outside special forces who were not casualty averse in a way that the Russians, Japanese & Germans usually were.

Every army in 1944 was converting specialists to infantry. The Germans were taking Luftwaffe ground crew and sailors into infantry formations. The Red Army was conscripting Ukrainian and Belarusian peasants, even those who they had reason to suspect supported the German occupation at least for a time. The Americans created their third wave divisions mostly out of taking people back from over specialized fields.

The British essentially sacrificed the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem and launched several frontal assaults near Caen in 1944, and the Italian campaign was chock full of examples of rather aggressive and reckless assaults, especially after Salerno.

 

[Tangles2]

Every army in 1944 was converting specialists to infantry. The Germans were taking Luftwaffe ground crew and sailors into infantry formations. The Red Army was conscripting Ukrainian and Belarusian peasants, even those who they had reason to suspect supported the German occupation at least for a time. The Americans created their third wave divisions mostly out of taking people back from over specialized fields.

The British essentially sacrificed the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem and launched several frontal assaults near Caen in 1944, and the Italian campaign was chock full of examples of rather aggressive and reckless assaults, especially after Salerno.

The trouble too is to remember that’s why there was the old saw about attackers needing to outnumber the defending forces 3 to 1. Germany is entirely strategically defensive and deeply dug in usually in prepared positions and the allied commanders know this. The regrettable fact remains that the mindset was unfortunately this was going to be the cost of doing business.