Copyright by Jeffrey C. Rutherford 2007 - University of Texas ...

The importance of regional homogeneity in creating cohesive combat units has
been emphasized by Martin Van Creveld in his study comparing American and German
“fighting power” during the Second World War. 190 Creveld stated that the emphasis on
the traditional “national basis” of Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons and other regional groups
ensured that “German divisions, especially at the lowest levels, were and remained tight
bunches of men who suffered, fought and died together,” as they all originated from the
same region and carried the same cultural baggage. 191 Creveld believed that the
replacement system performed well enough up through late 1944 to keep the German
Army in the field.
The actual functioning of this system received its first thorough examination by
Bernhard Kroener. 192 Placing the Wehrmacht’s manpower procurement policies in the
context of the larger struggle between industry and the Army for workers and soldiers,
Kroener argued that the already appalling number of casualties suffered by the German
Army in mid-August 1941 as well as the extreme difficulty in delivering reinforcements
to the ever-advancing fronts required a complete overhaul of the system. In Western
Europe, the Germans suffered approximately 171,000 casualties in just under four
months of fighting; on the eastern front, Red Army resistance led to higher casualties
totals by August 3, a mere 42 days into the Soviet campaign. Within the first three
months of Operation Barbarossa, the number had spiked to 583,000 losses. 193 The
190 Creveld, Fighting Power, p. 45.
191 Ibid.
192 Bernhard Kroener, “The Manpower Resources of the Third Reich in the Area of Conflict between
Wehrmacht, Bureaucracy, and the War Economy, 1939-1942,” in Bernhard Kroener, et. al., Germany and
the Second World War, Volume 5/1, Organization and Mobilization of the German Sphere of Power
(Oxford, 2000), pp. 789-1154.
193 On casualties from the fighting in the Low Countries and France, see Hans Umbreit, “German Victory
in Western Europe,” in Klaus A. Maier, et. al., Germany and the Second World War, vol. II, Germany’s
Initial Conquests in Europe (Oxford, 2000), p. 304. For casualty numbers during Operation Barbarossa,
see Halder, Kriegstagebuch. Tägliche Aufzeichnungen des Chefs des Generalstabes des Heeres 1939-1942 ,
vol. III, 2.8.41, p. 145; 28.9.41, p. 257.
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