For the most part, the American philosophy that has governed us since the Civil War came into play, WE do not throw men's lives away as did many of the other nations. It was the determined efforts of Generals like Ike, Bradley and Patton who decided it was more important to kill the other sides troops than to kill ours. We built planes, ships, submarines, and tanks with the intent that our troops should come home. The Sherman was an easy tank to get in and out of, and when designed was thought to be capable of defeating most enemy tanks. All of our fighters from the Wildcat on were built to take punishment and get the most important part home, the pilot. Stories abound about US planes shot up so bad there was nothing to do but shove them off the runway or carrier deck after they had gotten the pilot home.
When we had to feed men to the meat grinder, and there was no other choice, we did it. However, we knew we could make more tanks, more planes, more ships and guns but the hardest part to replace was the trained operator.
We used real experts to train our people too, Our best fighter bomber and transport pilots were pulled out of combat and used to train new replacements, on the theory that better replacements were worth more than a few superior but easily lost combat pilots.
materials. We had the manufacturing might to produce more than any other nation AND we never had those facilities under attack. Detroit, Gary, Long beach, Wichita and Seattle as well as as nyc, Newport news, and Philadelphia never had to endure bombing campaigns. We mined ore in Minnesota and it went to Erie and Gary and then to build the tools of war without being bombed. Texas produced oil and we never had to worry about an airraid.
as for weapons one on one,
we had a better rifle, we had a better combat support arm. and we had a better pistol.
We had the HMG, we had a SAW, they had a better GPMG.
Despite the comments that the 88 was not a good arty piece, read up about it's use by Rommel in the desert. It ate Montgomery's troops up.
It was also not the only field piece used by the germans. The German army had pioneered the use of mobile artillery in the early years as well as the use of CAS as a fighting tool. Read about the Blitz era of the war and the use of the Stuka as flying artillery. Stumble on to a fixed position gun that was holding up an advance, and call in the dive bombers. This was a lesson learned very quickly by the USA.
Germany was a nation that prized engineers, and America was a land that prized industrialists. WE had lots of guys who were trained as engineers, but were also industrialists, meaning they understood what it took to take and idea and make it into a product. A product that worked when it should, was safe when it was supposed to be, and easy to use, and economical to make.
WE had world class aeronautical engineers, none better really. WE also had the luxury of sitting on the sidelines for a couple of years and watching what worked and what did not. We preferred to have planes that had plenty of protection, plenty of speed and plenty of firepower. Both the germans and the brits started the war with fighters that had only 4 .30 cal machine guns. We started with fighters that had six .50 cal guns. the germans had fighters that could barely make it over the channel and fight for fifteen minutes before needed to return home, Very shortly after we had fighters that would fly a thousand miles fight and fly that much to get home,
WE studied the best of the best and fielded the 105 and 155 howitzers, guns good enough to serve for nearly 50 years. we adopted other nations ideas when it came to mortars and rockets and by wars end were producing the best mortars there were. The 81 was perhaps the best of its type weapon we had by wars end for the infantry man. able to stop attacks with very accurate fire and with great lethality.
