British Infantry vs German Infantry (1940)

German infantrymen versus British infantryman 1940 World War 2 the spring of 1940 the British and German army confronted each other on a full scale in the Battle of France a rapidly defeating its more numerous enemies in only 46 days the German infantry proved to be better prepared and organized than their British French Dutch and Belgian counterparts when World War two began the Germans had the advantage of having a better prepared army as German soldiers were being prepared for war from their adolescence by joining the Hitler Youth they were familiarized with uniforms and military life years spent in the paramilitary Hitler Youth had prepared German men well for when they were recruited and sent for 16 weeks training at the air SATs battalion which focused on instilling greater discipline in recruits this basic training taught them how to maintain and use their weapons marchin formation clean their uniforms read maps write military reports estimate ranges and dig trenches after their initial training recruits were sent to their units with a received more practical combat training infantry recruits were trained and handle on all kinds of infantry weapons with field exercises conducted with live ammunition they also endured intense physical drills according to the dictum sweat saves blood most importantly their training shaped the minds of these young men to embrace the idea that Germany was a nation destined to rule the world such an approach was foreign to British democratic society which was still reeling from the recent horrors of World War one financial difficulties require the British Army to be a small professional force known as the British Expeditionary Force which was primarily used to police the vast British Empire accordingly the British paid much more attention to its Navy than its army in the interwar years the British Army had been entirely voluntary based however in May 1939 the British government introduced military conscription that required all men aged 20 to 22 to go through six months of training once the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939 the National Service Act expanded conscription to all men aged 18 to 41 it was clear that Britain was not prepared for war by the end of 1939 Britain had mobilized 1 million men however this was nothing in comparison to the Germans would militarized an entire society in preparation for war moreover the British soldiers were not trained enough when they were deployed to the European continent German soldiers were not only well trained but also well equipped the standard field uniforms for infantryman were designated as the model 1936 it consisted of a field great blouse which was a traditional German color for uniforms and slate grey trousers tucked into nail-studded Jack boots the m34 side cap was also colored in field grey when in the battle zone the side cap was replaced with a model 1935 steel helmet stall helm the helmet was made of 1.1 to one point two millimeter thick steel sheet it was made in four different sizes weighing up to 1.3 4 kilograms around his waist the German soldier wore a belt with a buckle with the inscription got to Minuit's or God with us the belt of a German soldier held to a munition pouches each holding 30 rounds a musette bag for holding food rations and rifle cleaning tools a hand spade that was used for digging trenches as well as for hand-to-hand combat an M 1938 gas mask packed inside a tin container a sidearm holster and a water flask the total weight of the belt and additional equipment was around 8 kilograms or 17.6 pounds shoulder straps were also attached to the belt which had cooking utensils attached and a camouflage pattern tent Square besides its primary role to build a tent it also served as a raincoat and improvised stretcher the British made an eleventh-hour change to their uniform in 1937 just two years prior to the outbreak of the war they discarded the service dress which was a combined field and dress uniform used since 1902 the new uniform known as the battle dress was to be worn by British and Commonwealth soldiers the battle dress was modelled on ski suits and designed specifically to suit the needs of modern mechanized warfare it was loose-fitting to allow for free movement and it was designed to suit vehicular movement rather than horseback transport and remained warm even when wet the uniform itself consisted of a short jacket and high-waisted trousers both made of waterproof wool Serge it was dyed a light khaki color making it more visible on the battlefields of Western Europe than the German uniform a problem with the uniform was that when crawling or running a gap between the short jacket and trousers opened leaving the soldier exposed unfortunately the new uniform appeared so late that many soldiers were sent to France wearing the old service dress moreover older officers were extremely hostile to the new battle dress the only piece of equipment that remained unchanged was the Brody mark - helmet nicknamed the salad bowl the Brody helmet was an obsolete design that was better suited to the trench warfare of World War 1 indeed its distinctive shape was designed to prevent shrapnel falling onto soldiers heads and shoulders in the trenches the 1937 pattern web equipment was used to carry equipment and was made from cotton webbing it was also standard-issue for British and Commonwealth troops it was dyed in khaki boot could then be dyed with Blanco which made it waterproof and malleable and turned it to a pea green shade it consisted of the belt shoulder straps ammunition pouches a gas mask pack worn on the chest carriers for water flask and a small pack a carrier for a small Spade a bayonet sheath known as a frog a medium-sized rectangular haversack on the back to store food and other utensils and depending on the army branch they were various combinations to fit their other needs since it was a somewhat hasty solution 19:37 web equipment was unpopular among many officers NCOs and soldiers they regarded as clumsy uncomfortable and mobility restricting the light infantry weapons that German soldiers carried in the Western Front were the EM 1884 90 at bayonet the em 1924 stick grenade the style hon Granada was a distinctive German grenade that had a stick attached to a public charge canister the stick allowed it to be thrown larger distances another grenade to the Germans used was the M 1939 hand grenade the lugar para bellum po8 and Walther p38 these pistols were carried by officers and NCOs heavy weapons crews and medics both were powerful pistols that could shoot through any helmet at a 10 meter distance the MP 38 and MP 40 a standard German submachine gun designed to meet the needs of mechanized units the mauser karabiner 98k a standard weapon of the German infantrymen throughout the entire war the letter K stands for Kurtz short as the rifle was much shorter than previous versions and was better for handling at a combat the mg 34 the first ever general-purpose machine gun as it could be used both as a light and heavy machine gun one put on a tripod it had a rapid rate of fire of 1,200 rounds per minute the British arsenal of infantry weapons at the beginning of the war also showed how poorly they were prepared for the war the smle number 1 bayonet a sword type bayonet with a length of 18 inches the number 36 M Mills fragmentation grenade and number 69 mark 1 blasts grenade the Enfield number 2 mark 1 and Webley Mark 4 to rare service revolvers of World War 2 there were actually modified versions of the revolvers from the first world war era designed to fire a 38 round the m-19 28 Thompson at the time of the invasion of France in 1940 the Sten submachine gun wasn't yet in service since the British had no submachine guns of their own they were importing em 1928 Thompson's from the United States although a quality weapon the EM 1928 was expensive for that reason it was not deployed to units in as great a numbers as the MP 38 an MP 40 wore the smle number one rifle the British army entered this second world war with the same rifle as it practically was in the First World War the smle number one rifle which fired a standard British 303 round it had a 10 round capacity which gave it an advantage over the German car 98 case five round capacity as the war went on it was replaced with the new model Lee Enfield number four the Bren light machine gun the Bren was the finest piece of weaponry that the British infantrymen were equipped with it was an Enfield modification of the Czech zb-26 machine gun that fired standard British 303 rounds it was a good weapon that suited modern tactics during the invasion of France the German tactic was to make Swift attacks against enemy units using great firepower to overrun them this tactic emphasised the use of machine guns which they deployed on a section level German regiments were trained to be tactically self-sufficient in operations and therefore had more freedom in acting than their British counterparts finally German victories were achieved in 1940 because of the full cooperation with all the branches of the German army indeed one of the primary roles of the German infantry was to mop up resistance left behind the Panzer divisions which weaponed and pushed through the Allied defences in their blitzkrieg attacks after a successful blitzkrieg campaign in Poland the morale of the German soldier was very high therefore their high spirits could not be matched by the Allied troops similarly as the campaign and France progressed the continued success of the German blitzkrieg meant that German morale grew further still even though the British embraced the tactics of mechanized infantry they still stuck to a traditional positional warfare and were unprepared for the speed of the German advances this was especially so as the French and prepared for a defensive war along the Maginot Line a vast ring of fortresses in the northwest of France the war was being fought on French soil the British had no choice but to cooperate ultimately the British and French completely neglected the fact that warfare had dramatically changed and modernized since the conclusion of World War one indeed the British and French aim to repeat tactics from that war by halting the German advance in Belgium however when the German attack began and their Panzer tanks penetrated the allied defensive lines the British and French realized that their plan is not going to work the Germans simply chose to bypass the heavily five Maginot Line and attached through the art denizen atactic which left thousands of French soldiers now stranded behind enemy lines once the Allied soldiers realize that the German assault had been successful their morale plummeted as a result the Allied forces were pushed towards the English Channel and the English were miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk however this cannot hide the fact that the Allied campaign in France was an unmitigated 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Channel: Simple History

Views: 1,740,614

Rating: 4.9122472 out of 5

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, British Infantry, German Infantry, vs, Recruitment, ww2, training, Ersatz Bataillon, uniforms, British Expeditionary Force, mobilised, equipment, M34 side cap, field cap, field-gray, infantryman, ‘Gott mit uns, gas mask, Service Dress, Battledress, Brodie helmet, 1937 Pattern, Web Equipment, Khaki, Blanco, Stielhandgranate, Luger, submachine, kurz, Karabiner 98k, SMLE, Thompson, Webley, BREN, Blitzkrieg, france, panzer, maginot line

Id: dwoKTe19etI

Length: 12min 32sec (752 seconds)

Published: Sun May 10 2020