Were the Germans really that good?

[Steel God]

Ahhh, but Chris, you can't just casually say "on all levels" because it's an apples and oranges comparison.

To win at war you must first and foremost have a good strategy. In that regard the Germans sucked. At best their strategy was improvised, and at worst it didn't exist.

To support a good strategy you need the industry to support your plans, and a military capable of executing it. The German industry didn't even gear up until after the war was lost in 42. Their military was always capable of executing whatever was asked of it, but occasionally what was asked of it by OKW was asinine.

To support the military operations that execute your strategy you need a well trained and tactically disciplined army. In that regard the Germans had no equal in the early war, and few equals in the later years of the war.

So again, you can't casually say "at all levels" because the answer is different.

As for the Canadians, true warriors in WWII to be sure, as tough as the Aussies and main line SS in my book; but it's tough to compare small contingents of troops (like the three I mention here) to the over all training of 100s of divisions). When painting with a broad brush like this we can't use a small canvas.

Paul