From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Germany Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Germany, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to articles related to Germany on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please join the project and help with our open tasks.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information: This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-Class status: Referencing and citation: not checked Coverage and accuracy: not checked Structure: not checked Grammar: not checked Supporting materials: not checked To fill out this checklist, please add the following to the template call: <!-- 1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points are appropriately cited. --> |B-Class-1=yes/no <!-- 2. It reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain major omissions or inaccuracies. --> |B-Class-2=yes/no <!-- 3. It has a defined structure, including a lead section and one or more sections of content. --> |B-Class-3=yes/no <!-- 4. It is free from major grammatical errors. --> |B-Class-4=yes/no <!-- 5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> |B-Class-5=yes/no Related task forces (nations and regions): German military history task force Related task forces (periods and conflicts): Napoleonic era task force (c. 1792–1815) World War I task force World War II task force

Contents 1 Introduction 2 All in the details 3 Making a production out of it 4 You're so fine

[edit] Introduction

The introduction is pretty poor. I have absolutely no idea what the German General Staff is after reading it... -- Pluke 22:23, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree it was not clear, so editors have continue to add more background explanatory information. The key concept is that the General Staff was the first full-time, war as well as peacetime organization of extremely gifted and carefully chosen officers who did operational and logistics planning for the Army. The selection of these officers was no longer limited to the German nobility although the nobility continued to provide the bulk of the talent. Every candidate, noble an non-noble was carefully screened by a selection and training process that started with universal exams administered to interested boys throughout the German Empire. Prior to that, great planners often only appeared because of the threat of war or actual warfare. So much of the planning that goes into War making has to happen LONG before an actual war is declared. The Germans realized that they could no longer afford to leave this planning to chance nor to the talents of a particular monarch. So they began the process of what Colonel Trevor N. Dupuy calls the "institutionalization of military excellence." That's what we have made edits to better explain these things. SimonATL 21:59, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] All in the details

1Q: "the Prussian Army's top 120 junior officers"? Junior? I doubt there were many Lts... Can somebody specify?

Quoted from McElwee, "Waterloo to Mons". The phrase "junior officers" probably also embraced Captains. However, the secret of the training system was to pick the most promising officers when young. HLGallon 00:40, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Also, re this:

"In the French (and British) armies of the time, there was an anti-intellectual prejudice in favour of brave and unimaginative regimental officers over intelligent and well-trained staff officers."

This persisted, at least in British case, into WW2. Include that factoid here, or no? Trekphiler 23:03, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Probably irrelevant to the period under discussion. HLGallon 00:40, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Making a production out of it

I rewrote this:

"Also, for all the duration German industry could not furnish small arms in sufficient quantities, forcing the Army to rely heavily on older weapons, prizes of war, and adaptations of former designs produced in conquered countries, thus producing an arsenal filled with a stunning array of incompatible pieces, unlike the smaller number of standard small arms used by the Allies."

Hitler insisted on maintaining civilian production, to maintain morale, as well as believing the war would be short. Also, it isn't just a matter of rifles, but tanks & motor vehicles.

In re women in the workforce, this was opposed by Hitler, too.

Also, looking at list of World War II firearms of Germany, I'm not surprised it features large numbers of captured weapons. Armies routinely use captured stocks of weapons & ammo; it saves having to manufacture & transport. The Germans were compelled to it, but look at pix of WW2 U.S. tanks; they're festooned with captured gear.

Trekphiler 23:25 & 23:28, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] You're so fine

I'd add the fact that "the Prussian General Staff system gave Germans about ten times as many really good generals" as the Allies. Or so says Dyer, in War, as I recall... Maybe it was Dupuy in Evolution of Weapons & Warfare. Include it? Trekphiler 00:07, 11 October 2006 (UTC)