Thanks Mortman. But I would like to try and to keep this centered on the German military in WWII.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Special Ops Equipment: Newest—and Oldest
by Harold Kennedy
In their shadow war in Afghanistan, U.S. special operations troops exhibited their ability to use a wide variety of technology, ranging from some of the most modern equipment available to some of the oldest known to man.
While some special operators employed handheld laser target designators, global-positioning systems and digital radios to help Air Force and Navy precision-guided munitions hit al Qaeda and Taliban formations, others rode into battle on horseback, participating in the first cavalry charges of the 21st century.
Some—such as Army Rangers—dressed in standard khaki-colored desert camouflage battle dress, complete with lightweight Kevlar helmets and body armor. They typically armed themselves with the latest small arms from the special operations arsenal.
Others—such as Special Forces, SEALS and Delta Force—adopted the traditional Afghan look, including long, flowing robes, turbans and beards. They often wielded AK-47 automatic rifles, left behind by Soviet invaders more than a decade ago, and even swords that may have been much older than that.
The Defense Department released a declassified situation report filed by a Special Forces soldier, assigned to the Northern Alliance forces opposing the Taliban, who wrote with some amazement:
“I am advising a man on how to best employ light infantry and horse cavalry in the attack against Taliban T-55s (tanks), mortars, artillery, personnel carriers and machine guns—a tactic which I think became outdated with the invention of the Gatling gun. The Mujahadeen have done that every day we have been on the ground ...
“We have witnessed the horse cavalry bounding overwatch from spur to spur to attack Taliban strong points—the last several kilometers under mortar, artillery and sniper fire. There is little medical care if injured, only a donkey ride to the aid station, which is a dirt hut.”
With his report complete, the Special Forces trooper joined his Northern Alliance commander in a cavalry charge, said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.
“In Afghanistan, a country we think of in somewhat medieval terms, our Special Forces have taken a page from the past, from the history of the horse cavalry and soldiers armed with swords and rifles, maneuvering on horseback,” said Wolfowitz. “But now they use radios to direct close air support and bomber strikes, sometimes from halfway around the world.”
When reporters asked Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld about the return of the cavalry, he joked that was all part of the Rumsfeld transformation plan. Wolfowitz agreed: “Indeed it is. Taking risks, thinking boldly, adapting to circumstances, exploiting our advantages is what we’re after.”
In addition to horses, special operators used mules to move food, ammunition and other gear through Afghanistan’s mountains and deserts, Rumsfeld noted. Some of the animals’ equipment was shipped in from the United States, he told reporters, adding: “I have seen drop orders that included saddles, bridles and horse feed.”
None of this surprises those who are familiar with special operations forces. “Most of the Special Forces guys in Afghanistan are from the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), out of Fort Campbell, Ky.,” said retired Maj. Gen. William C. Moore, chairman of the Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Division of the National Defense Industrial Association.
“The 5th’s regional responsibility includes Afghanistan,” Moore said. “They study the local languages and culture, and they train to move around the countryside without attracting a lot of attention. They learn how to handle horses and pack mules. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had some training with camels.”

All-Terrain Vehicles
Special operators did have more modern means of traveling the hills and valleys of Afghanistan. In late December, for example, the telescopic lenses of television news cameras captured images of Green Berets flitting around the mountainsides of Tora Bora, driving all-terrain vehicles. More commonly, however, they traveled in Soviet-era military vehicles, aging Toyota pickup trucks and the sport-utility vehicles favored by local warlords.
Sometimes, they acquired vehicles by unconventional means. For example, when Special Forces Capt. Jason Amerine’s detachment rushed to help the forces of Hamid Karzai—now Afghanistan’s interim prime minister—fend off a Taliban assault on a provincial capital called Tirin Kowt, the unit was in a hurry.
“We stole four vehicles, raced forward and told [Karzai’s troops] ... catch up with us [when you can],” Amerine told reporters. The Americans didn’t really steal the cars, he explained. “We gave them back afterward ... We really didn’t have time to wait for [Karzai’s force] to reorganize at that time, so we decided it would be in the best interest of the town to take the vehicles and move forward, so that’s what we did.”
The detachment took up a position where it could watch the Taliban approaching the town and began directing air strikes, finally driving them away.
Every member of the detachment could direct close air support, Amerine said. And, for the most part, it worked “extremely well,” he said. “Close air support was one of the most important missions of this war, from my team’s standpoint. It kept us alive when the Taliban were coming north to Tirin Kowt. We used close air support to destroy other convoys that were probing our positions in the Tirin Kowt area and in other areas. You cannot devalue that asset.”
Sometimes, however, directing close air support proved to be dangerous. When Kandahar was preparing to surrender to Karzai, Amerine’s team was hit by an errant U.S. munition. Three of Amerine’s teammates died, and 19, including Amerine, were wounded.
“It was a tragic loss, but that being said, we were all professionals,” Amerine said. “I don’t have any doubts about my job or what we did in Afghanistan. I’m very proud of my soldiers and all that they accomplished.”
Although special operators used the latest gadgets to call in close air support, that did not eliminate the possibility of error on their part or the air crews receiving the coordinates, said Robert Andrews, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.
“I will tell you ... no matter how smart [weapons] are, how smart we are, at least some of us, in the past week, have dialed the wrong number on our punch telephones,” Andrews told reporters.
To minimize the chances of error on their sensitive missions, special operations troops are carefully chosen and trained, Andrews said. “They are older than their cohorts in the regular services. They’ve been better and more rigorously trained, and they’re generally better educated. Masters’ degrees are not rare in the enlisted ranks in special ops.”
It takes two years to train some of the enlisted personnel, Andrews said. Officers take longer. “Capt. Amerine ... probably had seven or eight years under his belt,” Andrews said. “One of his languages was Arabic, and another one was French. And one of his sergeants spoke Pashtun.”
Special Forces units, such as Amerine’s, continually train to conduct unconventional warfare in any of its forms—guerrilla tactics, evasion and escape subversion, and sabotage—officials explained.

LOL sorry jc it seems things that are old are new again LOL

In a way yes. But not to the extent the Germans HAD to use them or the amount.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

No kidding! LOL. Oppppsss sorry for the pun .

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

As a slight aside, a certain British cavalry regiment were sending patrols out mounted on horses in Afghanistan in the last couple of years, didn't do badly either by all accounts.

__________________
There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

Yes but those were deliberate choices advised by the tactical situation. That is: exceptions. There is nowhere any inkling of a myth concerning the mechanization of the British and US Armies and Afghanistan.

Now back from if you please...

__________________

Thanks Za . now back to your regularly scheduled program LOL.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

"BICYCLE-MOUNTED TROOPS
Newly created Volksgrenadier divisions not only have a bicycle-mounted reconnaissance battalion or company, but also have an entire battalion of infantry mounted on bicycles. In addition, the two engineer companies of the Division Engineer Battalion are bicycle-mounted. It may be assumed that some of the tactics employed by the bicycle-mounted company in the reconnaissance unit (Fusilier Battaillon) of the infantry division may also be used by the bicycle-mounted elements of the Volksgrenadier divisions. Here are several prisoner-of-war comments on this subject.
A prisoner remarks that when a bicycle-mounted squad is moving along a road as a point, anticipating contact with a hostile force, the squad leader and a runner are followed at a distance of about 50 yards by three machine gunners with a light machine gun, supported by a sniper, a semiautomatic rifleman, and two riflemen, one of whom is armed with a cup-grenade discharger. When the squad is fired on, the machine-gun detachment immediately deploys, while the remaining men drop their bicycles under the nearest available cover and take up firing positions.
The leading squad of a platoon is said to move with a rifleman, a semiautomatic rifleman, a machine gunner with light machine gun, a sniper, the squad leader and a runner, two machine gunners, and a rifleman armed with a cup grenade discharger—moving in that order. Fifty yards behind, the platoon commander and a runner, the platoon sergeant and a runner, a telegraph operator and a medical aid man, and an antitank rifleman follow—in the order named.
A prisoner from another unit comments that in his outfit it was common practice to send two bicycle-mounted scouts ahead of the point squad.
Prisoners remark that bicycle-mounted companies are expected to be able to cover up to 75 miles a day, but that, in actual operations, the figure seldom exceeds 50 or 60 miles.
Prisoners from certain bicycle-mounted companies say that they have been trained mainly in infantry tactics, and not primarily for reconnaissance missions. One unit was trained to move forward on its bicycles, leave them in farm buildings, and then go forward on foot to fight as infantry. In Russia a company was detached from an infantry regiment, equipped with bicycles, and formed into a reconnaissance company. These men were given the mission of protecting the regimental flank upon contact with a hostile force. "

Lone Sentry: In Brief (U.S. WWII Intelligence Bulletin, March 1945)

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

"The Germans also had 410 vehicles at their disposal, as well as 731 horse wagons and 998 horses, 5 fishing boats and one motor boat. Three small submarines and seven other seagoing craft were captured as well."

Nase noviny - The port of Dunkirk in WWII - The Czechoslovaks at Dunkirk 1944-45

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

Hope they remembered to chain them up properly

LOL. Seems kinda specialized to train to leave them just in farm buildings . LOL

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.

__________________


For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman.