German observers

[yantaylor]

Hi everyone.
I was talking to a retired American colonel today about how the different tactics employed by the nations in the early years of WW2 and he said that the Germans studied the American 7th cavalry at fort knox, he said that this took place in the 1930s and the observers visited a number of time and they used some of what they gathered when they trained their own panzer divisions.

Is this true?

Regards
Ian.

[Carl Schwamberger]

He is probably referring to the 7th Cavalry Brigade, which was for several years a experimental mechanized unit. Most of the officers affiliated with the unit, such as Chaffee went on to become the cadre for the 1st & 2d Armored Divisions when those were activated in 1940, and the larger Armored Corps or Branch.

German & US Army officers were observers and embedded in each others military in the 1920s & 1930s. Cody Weidermyer attended the Kriegsacadimie & briefly served on a German HQ staff for a training exercise. In the US Field Artillery Journal you can find a report from a US Army Captain who trained with a Japanese Army artillery regiment of over a year. In the Journal of Royal Artillery there are observations of a British officer who visited US Army artillery units in the 1930s.

At the time the US established the 7th Cav Brigade as a experimental mech unit the Germans had several armored divisions forming, so I doubt much was learned from the US example. Udet observing US Army Air Corps close air support demonstrations and purchasing US made tactical bombers in the 1920s was probably the most important US influence on the future Wehrmacht.

[yantaylor]

Thanks Carl, the idea of German observers was brought to my attention when my retired army friend read the book "Through Mobility We Conquer"