Letters

Army, Apr 2004

Probably the first action that will lead to success in Iraq is to eliminate ideas about major combat before May 2003, and what has taken place since. It is all war, from March 2003 to some date in the future, so let us call it that.

Someone said that those who fail to learn from the past place themselves at risk in the future.

COL. RICHARD E. MACK, USA RET.

Chalfont, Pa.

Troop Rotation

* I read with interest Richard Sinnreich's article, "This Year's Relief in Place Will be Unprecedented" (February). In World War II, the numerically inferior German army maintained its high combat effectiveness by rotating entire divisions out of the combat zone, most often when the division had suffered 50 percent casualties. This was especially true on the eastern front. Most often the division pulled out of the combat zone and transferred to France, usually to the Atlantic wall. There the division's reserve element supplied the needed manpower to bring the division up to normal strength. There also, the division trained to regain its normal combat effectiveness before it was once again transferred to the eastern front. That was the reason the Allies, on June 6, 1944, faced some "divisions" that had the strength of two or three battalions and often only two division artillery tubes. One must remember, however, that these skeleton divisions were composed of combat-hardened veterans. After the Normandy landing, skeleton divisions from the eastern front returned to their home base for replenishment and training. Finally, in late 1944, the rotation became impractical and the combat effectiveness of the German army decreased.

GERHARDT B. THAMM

Fernandina Beach, Fla.