Larger American Army in WW2

[Carl Schwamberger]

The numbers I saw suggested that the Brits managed a 'tooth to tail' ratio of about 1:1. Why was it possible for them and not the US? Or am I comparing apples and oranges?

I strongly there is a variable in how the civilian or non uniformed support is counted. A lot of support manpower of the German military came in the form of the Todt organization, who are ususally not counted because they were civilians. This was a similar if perhaps lesser factor with the British. In the case of the US it was difficult to send civilian labor overseas. The USN used civilian contractors for their construction work in and outside the US, until circumstances made the conversion of civilian labor to Naval personnel in the Construction Battalions (Sea Bees). Port Operations Units were another group of naval personnel who under many other circumstances would have been independant civilian contractors with only a few naval officers as liasion or supervisors. Most of the heavy construction battalions and many of the medium of the US Army were similar.

There were US Army or Navy support units working with Allies combat units as well. ie: the Chinese Corps that fought in Burma with US Army weapons and supply also had a number of US Army support units sent over in 1942 to 1944 to provide logistics support. Ditto for the Free French Army from when it was requiped and supplied by US sources from mid 1943, ie: The USAAF airfield construction and support units sent to Corsica in November/December 1943 helped set up the air base for the French air groups as well as the USAAF.

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

Reminds me of the argument made the German army was better because they suffer higher casualites per capita

What?
Who would say that?

Read these discussion boards long enough & you will see it both implied and occasionally stated out right. Happnens like so many other errors when we dont think through what we write before posting.

I do remember that idea floated back in the pre internet days when these same sort of conversations circulated in the game clubs.

The general idea behind it was the non US soldier was braver & more aggresive while the American would run from a fight, hence the US Army suffered few dead and wounded... Hey, I'm not calling this logical

 

[Carl Schwamberger]

How many more "braceros" could the US have recruited from Mexico to replace drafted industrial wokers? Could more braceros be recruited from other Latin American countries such as Cuba, the Central American nations, Dominican Republic, Colombia, ect.? Could a more forceful draft enforcement on African Americans in the South freed up more African Americans to fight, lynchings and Klan terror or no? If so, how many?

Cant say specific numbers off the top of my head.

When you look at underused Mexican or Latin American labor then at some point it will become more efficient to use the labor in factories south of the border. Historians like Herman in 'Freedoms Forge', describe how the problems of moving labor to the existing industrial districts in the US made it more efficient to build new factories in regions with the underused labor, hence giant aircraft assembly sites in Wichita Kansas, or Georgia. To some extent that would have been practical, expanding industrial operations in Mexico, ect.. particulary for the initial processing of raw materials originating there.

One example of offshore labor was the truck assembly site in Persia. It was more efficient use of cargo ship space to send the Lend Lease trucks disassembled to the Persian Gulf, and then train and pay locals to do much of the labor in the final assembly.

When considering all this it needs to be remembered the original US war plans did not terminate in 1945. Those considered the industrial out and sustainment of the military extending through 1946, & into 1947 if worst case. The capping of industrial output for military use that started in the winter of 1944/45 was much earlier than expected, even in the summer of 1944. Trying to cram a signifiantly higher US output into 1943-44 does not closely fit the plans in place at the time nor the global situation. had the requirement existed the industrial effort would have been increasing from late 1944 instead of leveling off & then declining. that would have provided the incentive to invest in under used labor in & outside the US.