German firepower

[Dan Caviness]

I find the observation about Fallschirmjägers being former Hitler Youth to be about as relevant as the fact that most US Army soldiers were Boy Scouts.
(easy boys....BOTH were paramilitary organizations)

No matter how much esprit de corp and elan these 17 year olds must have had, the fact is they had not seen the elephant, and were not likely to stand against veteran troops. No matter how many hurrahs and patches you attach to their shiny new uniforms, you cannot seriously consider them the equal of the early war Fallschirmjägers. With an 8 morale you are.

I have not researched your battle Alfons, you have obviously done a thorough job of that. I am always impressed with your work. But, I will mention that no matter how tough these boys were, the late war Fallschirmjaeger was a mere shadow of those units that took Eban Emaul, landed in Norway, and were bled to death at Crete. Largely in vain considering Malta was the real objective. After mid 1944 they weren't even trained for airborne operations, and knew full well they would be used to fill the lines as ground troops. You have to consider that those forces in the Rheinland areas, while still viable, had also been used in Italy, some in Russia, and even Holland. I suspect few of the veterans were left.

Since they were always Luftwaffe affiliated, replacement troops at times even came from Luftwaffe Field Divisions as the war wore on and casualties became harder to replace. It is for this reason I believe your morales are too high.

I think you may also consider that as the war drew towards it's ineveitable conclusion throughout late 1944 and 1945 that all airborne troops suffered serious declines in morale. The Fallschirmjägers because of casualties, and the Allied Paratroopers due to the "why should I get killed this late in the war" syndrome. And overwhelmingly because they were getting used up. Airborne is inherently deadly and losses are always high.

Both sides eventually stopped using airborne assaults, as each sucessive operation trended towards higher and higher casualties once the opposing forces learned to deal with the tactic. Compare Eban Emaul, Crete, Market Garden, etc.

You may consider reducing the amount of MG42's, and replacing them with the Fallschirmjägers weapon of choice, the FG42. It's inherent flaws, represented as the "normal" German paratroop unit's fire ability, would go a long ways towards evening out the inherent deadly ability of the MG42. I.E., para rifle platoons rather than para MG platoons.

You go to great pains to model your scenarios realistically and attempt to get everything correct, but if as you say you have all the units set up perfectly and it is historically accurate...the British would have lost this battle would they not?

Regards,

Dan