72-WW2-105 GENERAL STAFF NORMANDY 1944

During World War II, several dozen divisions were formed as part of the British Army, and at the end of the war they served in its ranks about 2.9 million people. Of course, this one of the most important armies of the Second World War was fought by its officers' corps. A significant part of British senior officers from 1939-1945 graduated Royal Military Academy, Woolwich or Royal Military College, Sandhurst. They were - most often - well prepared for their role on the battlefield, but often proved to be too conservative on the battlefield and acted too methodically. Examples include the planning and conduct of the counterattack at Arras in May 1940 or the fighting in the Caen area in summer 1944. At the same time, however, the British officer corps was able to learn, as evidenced by the lessons learned from the battles with Rómmel's troops in the desert in 1941-1942. He was also able to carry out very successful offensive operations - a perfect example is Operation Compass at the turn of 1940/1941 led by General Richard O'Connor. She considered herself the most outstanding senior British commander of World War II - more or less deservedly - field marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, but it is also worth mentioning, for example, Generals Dempsey, Horrocks and Hobart.At the outbreak of World War II in Europe, the American army - including the aviation component - numbered approx. 190,000. people, including 3 infantry divisions, a cavalry division, a Hawaiian division, a Filipino division and the Panama Canal Garrison. Obviously, this was a very small number compared to the Japanese or German troops. However, in the course of World War II, this army grew more than 40 times[!] to approx. 8.3 million people in mid-1945. Of course, this leap in growth also entailed a leap in the size of the US Army Corps. For example, between the summer of 1941 and the summer of 1947, as many as 67,000 candidates completed officer courses at the Officer Candidate School for infantry. Of course, most senior officers (from colonel and above) had higher military education before the summer of 1941. If we tried to assess the American officer cadre in the period 1941-1945, one could indicate a relatively small number of cardinal errors committed on the battlefield (see: General John Lucas' actions at Anzio in 1944 or, at a lower level, the attack of the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Armored Regiment of Sidi bou Zid during the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in 1943), sparing his soldiers, rather skilfully using a significant material advantage (especially during the fighting in Normandy in 1944), but also the ability to react fairly quickly to unforeseen actions of the enemy (vide : German counteroffensive in the Ardennes of 1944/1945). At the same time, however, it cannot be ignored that often American officers acted in a conservative, low-risk manner, striving for a certain victory. The exceptions included, above all, General Patton.