Germanys Infantry-School Hammelburg (20 Pics - need time to

[McLane]

Hi there!

A friend of mine send me some very nice Pics from his time by the german Bundeswehr. I want to share these Pics with you. The Pictures show the Infantry-Skool in southern Germany, Hammelburg - it is a Trainingfacility where you learn how to fight in cities and so on. Every kind of infantryfight you will teached there. And it is the ground wehre new technics were showed, like the MG4, the GMG, the G36 and the IDZ-Systems (and many others).

I have to censored the Pics - privacy!

http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw001.jpg
http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw002.jpg
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http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw012.jpg
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http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw020.jpg

[Macs.]

Nice pics ! woot

Love that one:
http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw018.jpg

[deutschersoldat]

Great fotos !!!!!

:D

[Phoenix]

http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw002.jpg

For what is this green pipe ?

[SiFiOn]

http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw012.jpg



Excellent pics man!

Do you have more info an what this guy is carrying on his back?
Looks like some kind of explosive device?

[Thomsen]

For what is this green pipe ?

2nd barrel for the MG3.



Do you have more info an what this guy is carrying on his back?
Looks like some kind of explosive device?

Those blue things are training handgrenades, thew green boxes carry 250 cartouches of machine gun ammo each.

Weighs about ~ 17kg... ;)

[Graeme]

looks like boxes of 7.62 for an Mg3 :)

[easyand]

GP woot

[SiFiOn]

Thanx for the info!

[Crazyjack]

http://home.arcor.de/mountainbiker1983/HiBa2.jpg
This was my Hammelburg, last summer!
Was a lot of fun!

[haze99]

:) nice foto of the gewhre's! I see they had a FRG G-3A3, USSR RPK, DDR Karabiner S und MpikM. Also a DDR MpiKS! Very old!

[Xingbake]

Coooooooool pics! :D

I got one question: In term of battle effectiveness, how does the Germany army today comparing with Germany army in WWII?

[McLane]

Hey very nice to find more german members *lol* I was lon time guest in this forum and i saw that here are many germans (and so fu*king many chinese member *rofl*).

It's cool that you enjoy that pics, i ask my friend for more and he said that he had over 3 CDs with pics.... we have to wait a little bit. Most of these pictures were over three MB size! So, the pics you see here, from me, were originally around 1 MB and i had to put them smaller *lol* Okay... just wait a few days and you wil get more! (i hope ;))

[McLane]

Coooooooool pics! :D

I got one question: In term of battle effectiveness, how does the Germany army today comparing with Germany army in WWII?


I don't really know. We have a huge Army (for an european country) but there are very old vehicles (the Marder is nearly 30 years old). i think the german Bundeswehr is not as powerfull like the Wehrmacht 60 Years ago. We have not that money that the other countries hav (e.g. GB, France or even Spain/Italy). But it is a nice army *lol* Okay, there are only theories about german combat effectiveness, beacause we fought not in a real war (like Iraq). But i think we were like the french Army, only heavier (not as fast and agil), but very effectiv.

I ask a Friend of mine (Infantry) and he said in a City-Fight the Bundeswehr beats the americans and french guys, becaus they do sometimes really stupid things. *lool*



I see they had a FRG G-3A3, USSR RPK, DDR Karabiner S und MpikM. Also a DDR MpiKS! Very old!

These are weapons for the so called 'aggressors', the training-enemy. I think it is realistic, beacaus in Afgahnisatn for example, they used this weapons, too! So.... to learn more about this weapons is a good thing, i think ;)

[Xingbake]

Coooooooool pics! :D

I got one question: In term of battle effectiveness, how does the Germany army today comparing with Germany army in WWII?


I don't really know. We have a huge Army (for an european country) but there are very old vehicles (the Marder is nearly 30 years old). i think the german Bundeswehr is not as powerfull like the Wehrmacht 60 Years ago. We have not that money that the other countries hav (e.g. GB, France or even Spain/Italy). But it is a nice army *lol* Okay, there are only theories about german combat effectiveness, beacause we fought not in a real war (like Iraq). But i think we were like the french Army, only heavier (not as fast and agil), but very effectiv.

I ask a Friend of mine (Infantry) and he said in a City-Fight the Bundeswehr beats the americans and french guys, becaus they do sometimes really stupid things. *lool*

Thanks for the answer! I hope Germany army is still one of the best in the World! Personally I like the Germany army in WWII very much. Just from military point of view and exclude those political factors, I think Germany army was the best at that time.

And we have huge group of Germany military fans on China military forums. They are called "Germanophile" :P

[deutschersoldat]

you cant compare the wehrmacht with the bundeswehr.

The wehrmacht was a army which could conquer the whole continent, and the bundeswehr is for national defence.

But today the bundeswehr is in a process of restructuring in to a army chrisis reaction armee or something like this

ps: @mclane: yes please post the pictures from your friend, its always nice to see pictures which arent already shown about the bundeswehr

[McLane]

I thank you for these words - it is quite nice to hear sometin' like that :) And yes, the german Wehrmacht was at the beginning 40's the best Army worldwide. But later.... they were crushed not by quality or tactics, they were crushed by the mass of enemies (think about that: there were 8500 Pankerkampfwagen IV and 50.000 Shermans and another 50.000 T34!).

Today... i think we have a god army - to heavy for the missions like in Afghanistan, but to fight back a enemy on our ground, it is a ****ing great army. In my opinion it is very important to defend his country, but the wordlwirde-missions are NOW our job, and the Bundeswehr is mostly not outfitted for this job. No money ;) but we are working on it *lol+

[Xingbake]

I thank you for these words - it is quite nice to hear sometin' like that :) And yes, the german Wehrmacht was at the beginning 40's the best Army worldwide. But later.... they were crushed not by quality or tactics, they were crushed by the mass of enemies (think about that: there were 8500 Pankerkampfwagen IV and 50.000 Shermans and another 50.000 T34!).

Today... i think we have a god army - to heavy for the missions like in Afghanistan, but to fight back a enemy on our ground, it is a f*** great army. In my opinion it is very important to defend his country, but the wordlwirde-missions are NOW our job, and the Bundeswehr is mostly not outfitted for this job. No money ;) but we are working on it *lol+

It is a little bit odd to hear that German has no money. :roll: :roll: p-) p-)

[Freibier]

Super Fotos McLane woot

[McLane]

But thats true! Germany is a 'rich' country but we spend 'only' 28 Billion (is that right, in Germany we call it 'Milliarden' but it must be the englisch 'Billion' :roll: ) to our Army. And there are plans to reduce this money in the next year. The situation is very bad:

There are fighterbomber-squadons (with Tornados) which can not fly because there is no money to pay the fuel and the repairkits. Another squadron(s) exists only to outfit the other squadrons (means: they de-construct good planes to outfit other planes, because there is no money). In a few years the german airforce must reduce the fleet of Tornado-Fighterbomber from 320 planes to nealy 80 maschines! And instead of 180 fuc*ing Eurofighters we get only 140 [we get a Fighter which can not fight - super!] Poor german Army....

[Freibier]

I thank you for these words - it is quite nice to hear sometin' like that :) And yes, the german Wehrmacht was at the beginning 40's the best Army worldwide. But later.... they were crushed not by quality or tactics, they were crushed by the mass of enemies (think about that: there were 8500 Pankerkampfwagen IV and 50.000 Shermans and another 50.000 T34!).

Today... i think we have a god army - to heavy for the missions like in Afghanistan, but to fight back a enemy on our ground, it is a f*** great army. In my opinion it is very important to defend his country, but the wordlwirde-missions are NOW our job, and the Bundeswehr is mostly not outfitted for this job. No money ;) but we are working on it *lol+

It is a little bit odd to hear that German has no money. :roll: :roll: p-) p-)
You ripped us off with the transrapid and now we're piss poor !!
:P
just kidding ... , our financial minister uses the money needed for bundeswehr to fix holes in his bad planned national budget instead

[Xingbake]

But thats true! Germany is a 'rich' country but we spend 'only' 28 Billion (is that right, in Germany we call it 'Milliarden' but it must be the englisch 'Billion' :roll: ) to our Army. And there are plans to reduce this money in the next year. The situation is very bad:

There are fighterbomber-squadons (with Tornados) which can not fly because there is no money to pay the fuel and the repairkits. Another squadron(s) exists only to outfit the other squadrons (means: they de-construct good planes to outfit other planes, because there is no money). In a few years the german airforce must reduce the fleet of Tornado-Fighterbomber from 320 planes to nealy 80 maschines! And instead of 180 fuc*ing Eurofighters we get only 140 [we get a Fighter which can not fight - super!] Poor german Army....

Sad to hear this :( :(

Maybe you guys can sell some of your WWII German weapon collection, I am sure you can earn a lot of money for your army today ;) ;)

[deutschersoldat]

but our mans are bulldog like leather
and hard like Krupp-steal
and agile like greyhounds

[McLane]

but our mans are bulldog like leather
and hard like Krupp-steal
and agile like greyhounds


rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl

That was good! Very nice!

But serious: to fight against a german paratrooper-squad is not very funny -aks the american rangers *mhahuaua* in a trining-exercise, the german-guys were much better than the so called 'elite' Rangers rofl

[Xingbake]

BTW: this is the best Germany military website in China(I think so), hope you guys can read it :lol: :lol:

http://www.sspanzer.net/

[McLane]

Oh not..... it is every time very hard for me that other countries see only the nazi-past of Germany. 'SS-Panzer' is not very funny to me :| I know it is only about the military and not the politics, but the SS were not only a elite-army, it was a killerarmy, they killed so many people.... civillians....


And no, i CAN'T read that rofl But it#s not bad....it seems a nice webiste, we take a deeper look....

[deutschersoldat]

no @ xingbake not real ^^


But serious: to fight against a german paratrooper-squad is not very funny -aks the american rangers *mhahuaua* in a trining-exercise, the german-guys were much better than the so called 'elite' Rangers

i can acknowledge that! i heard so many stories like that.
the us soldiers have muscles like bulls, but no endurance.

[Bombtrack]

But thats true! Germany is a 'rich' country but we spend 'only' 28 Billion (is that right, in Germany we call it 'Milliarden' but it must be the englisch 'Billion' :roll: ) to our Army. And there are plans to reduce this money in the next year. The situation is very bad:

There are fighterbomber-squadons (with Tornados) which can not fly because there is no money to pay the fuel and the repairkits. Another squadron(s) exists only to outfit the other squadrons (means: they de-construct good planes to outfit other planes, because there is no money). In a few years the german airforce must reduce the fleet of Tornado-Fighterbomber from 320 planes to nealy 80 maschines! And instead of 180 fuc*ing Eurofighters we get only 140 [we get a Fighter which can not fight - super!] Poor german Army....

Things could be a lot worse McLane, you could be in my forces! Our budget is less than half of yours.

[Crazyjack]

no @ xingbake not real ^^


But serious: to fight against a german paratrooper-squad is not very funny -aks the american rangers *mhahuaua* in a trining-exercise, the german-guys were much better than the so called 'elite' Rangers

i can acknowledge that! i heard so many stories like that.
the us soldiers have muscles like bulls, but no endurance.
Don´t generalize!

[Falco]

cool pics woot

[Pille1234]

Men, we need more pictures and less babbling :P j/k

[Kitsune]

Let me babble a bit:

The German Bundeswehr is hardly "huge". Personnel strength is 270.000. Until the late 80ties West German Bundeswehr strength had been 550.000 and East German NVA around 150.000...700.000 total for both "Germanys". That was probably "huge".

Defense budget isn't 28 billion (I wish it was) but 23,8 billion €. Actually a scandalous low budget. France spends around 32 billion and Great Britain 35 billion €. We have money...but we spend it for other things. While the US is spending far more than sensible, we do the opposite. Ah well.

Regarding this low budget it is actually surprising that some of the new equipment introduced is state of the art (Fregatte 125, Submarine class 212, Leopard II A6, As it looks now the Puma, Panzerhaubitze 2000, Tiger, Typhoon, NH 190 transport helicopter and if we are lucky the A400 M transport aircraft...nearly all of these the best worldwide). But much of the other stuff is quite outdated now, in some cases falling apart. And if the military budget is not going up soon, Bundeswehr will be a third rate army that not even the new gadgets can save.

Instead of developing power projection capabilites (a long neglected field since most of the world was a bit fed up with Germanys projections of power p-) ) Strucks "transformation" plan is too much aimed at turning Bundeswehr into the worlds finest peace keeping force for my taste. Germans do not go to war anymore. However they are developing their soft touch to pacify those regions the Americans have conquered before. As if that would be a sensible strategy.

But not all is lost. Not yet, at least. :|





Ok now...someone got any more pictures? :D

[GLax]



i wish we used those ammo pouches instead of those freakin drums, kinda a pain in the ass to fire a 249 from the sholder when you can get you hand on the forward handguard cuz the damn drum is in the way...

[tony6]

Reading Your discussion about German Army being "to heavy" for foreign missions I came up with this conclusion:
Taking part in the Iraq mission is very helpful to every military of the countries which are involved.
You have no idea how many things that mission change in Polish Army. Starting from gaining experience, changing the units structure (to more flexible), purchasing the C-130 transport aircraft, developing CIMIC&psychological warfare units, developing future "light batallions" forces (10 battalions equipped with Patria AMVs-first will be ready at the end of 2005), upgrading the equipment, weapons and individual soldiers gear (things which didn't work too well in combat will be upgraded/reconstructed).
Even the structure of a single company is being changed (more soldiers per one company).
Besides other political factors that mission was a great experience to our army and I think that it was good that we took part in it.
Just some thoughts...

[Crazyjack]

http://home.arcor.de/mountainbiker1983/HiBa3.jpg
http://home.arcor.de/mountainbiker1983/HiBa4.jpg
http://home.arcor.de/mountainbiker1983/Felddusche.jpg

Was one of the hottest summer of my life....

Recruit during 2003....some hell of weather!

[McLane]

The Prob is not that we did not HOW to change! The Prob is that there is not enough money to do that! We have the so called 'KRK' (Krisen Reaktions Kräfte - Light Troops for Foreign Missions) and they were well equiped. But the other Part of the german army is poor. We allready know what we have to do to make them fit for outer missions - but it costs money, money we haven't.

And we get our experience from the SFOR, KFOR and the ISAF-Missions, much experience, and the troops there were not the porblem. The problem is that the german army is on their limit, financial, logistical and menpower. And there are plans to change that, but in the future!

I know that poland learnd much in the last years, but there is no reason for germany to go into the iraq. And.... poland bought a complete Tank-Battalion from germany - the stuff we have is not as bad as it sounds - bad is we have not enough stuff and the german army must be reduced in the future - i hate that.


COOL PICS! :D

[Crazyjack]

Soon i will get the rest of the pics...
With some of the Konstanzbahn in Hammelburg and our "Rekrutenprüfung"
...
As i said....lot of fun!

[deutschersoldat]

our "stuff" belongs to the best in the world, but the money do care about it is not there

[He219]

But serious: to fight against a german paratrooper-squad is not very funny -aks the american rangers *mhahuaua* in a trining-exercise, the german-guys were much better than the so called 'elite' Rangers rofl
It's good to take pride, but bad to be overly confident ...

Nice pic's, McLane.
:D

[tony6]

I know that poland learnd much in the last years, but there is no reason for germany to go into the iraq. And.... poland bought a complete Tank-Battalion from germany - the stuff we have is not as bad as it sounds - bad is we have not enough stuff and the german army must be reduced in the future - i hate that.
Yeah but that Leos we bought are part of the hard-core of our army (defence of Poland territory). Expedition forces will be much "lighter". New Polish defence doctrine says that our army will be capable to maintain 5000 troops outside Poland every year.
As for SFOR/KFOR experience-our forces also were there but Iraq is complete different. You cannot compare it.

[KML]

The US army rangers trained the first German ranger (or whatever) unit in 1960-70s.

Plus nearly every US ranger now has Combat experiance, so I have to put my $ on the US ARMY RANGERS! p-)

[seventy6er]

Seeing these pics makes me wanna post all of my old Bundeswehr pics ;)

[Kitsune]

As for SFOR/KFOR experience-our forces also were there but Iraq is complete different. You cannot compare it.

I agree.


But you must understand, that we cannot simply partake in a war for practising purposes. It is a political decision. And it was the correct one. Tis war and its justifications were highly doubtful from the start, to say the least. It could have had desastrous consequences for the Near East region. And it could create a precedence for military aggresion in the future.
So however one could wish to be part of it from a strictly military point of view, that is simply not enough.

[flanker7]

http://radditz.no-ip.org/mclane/bw012.jpg



Excellent pics man!

Do you have more info an what this guy is carrying on his back?
Looks like some kind of explosive device?


One very interesting thing about german ammo boxes is that the handle is not placed on the centre of the cover but near the side. So you can carry two ammo boxes with one hand very easyly.

[tony6]

I agree.
Many Polish soldiers were in Krajina, Bosnia, Kosovo, etc. (especially paratroopers) but when those soldiers went to Iraq they said it was completely different thing. Iraq was to be peacekeepeng/stabilisation mission but we all know how it ended like: very often firefights, terrorist captureing, fighting Al-Sadr militia, etc.


But you must understand, that we cannot simply partake in a war for practising purposes. It is a political decision. And it was the correct one. Tis war and its justifications were highly doubtful from the start, to say the least. It could have had desastrous consequences for the Near East region. And it could create a precedence for military aggresion in the future.
So however one could wish to be part of it from a strictly military point of view, that is simply not enough.
I completely agree with that. I said that BESIDE political/ethic factors it was great military experience. That's it.
We all have some doubts about that mission but one thing is true: it will be good for our army.

[deutschersoldat]

The US army rangers trained the first German ranger (or whatever) unit in 1960-70s.

Plus nearly every US ranger now has Combat experiance, so I have to put my $ on the US ARMY RANGERS! p-)


that doesnt mean that us rangers are "better".

ksk was trained by sas and other speacial units too

[Macs.]

Don't start that "my *** is better then yours"-****, pls.

And a exercise battle is something very different to a real battle.

[KML]

p-) Amen! And God Bless the Germans for their actions in Afghanistan!

:hug:

:roll:
:cantbeli:

[Dutchman2]

I ask a Friend of mine (Infantry) and he said in a City-Fight the Bundeswehr beats the americans and french guys, becaus they do sometimes really stupid things. *lool*



Yes, but our small Dutch army kicked US asses also :D . Infact, almost everytime the US and the our army exercises together, we win woot ! Especialy in Hohenfels, we kicked the US OPFOR to pieces. The same when our Airforce is training with the Yanks...
The US forces works very slow compaired with European combat techniques. Most of because they have a person for every job to do, European soldiers can do more jobs and are less depended on the higher ranks.
The US is in his best when they are attacking with a massive force (shock & awe), but on smaller battle techniques like MOUT, they are slow and make faulds. I also noticed, that the US soldiers are weaker trained (please, I dont flame :oops: ), BUTTTT>>> There is no better Army Base than an US Army Base! In Germany or Bosnie; they have massive camps, and have a great kitchen woot :D !

[Steve Andrews]

Flecktarn woot

[SHA]

QUESTION ALERT!!!!!
a bit off-topic to what you guys are discussing but I've always wanted to ask this.

What's the difference between Werhmacht and Bundeswehr????

When did Werhmacht change to Bundeswehr and why????

Dank Tshus ;)

[caleb]

QUESTION ALERT!!!!!
a bit off-topic to what you guys are discussing but I've always wanted to ask this.

What's the difference between Werhmacht and Bundeswehr????

When did Werhmacht change to Bundeswehr and why????

Dank Tshus ;)

The Wehrmacht was the german army in WW2, After WW2 the Bundeswehr was "founded" to defend our Country and whole Europe against the Sowjets.

[Kitsune]

After Germany was founded in 1870, its armed forces have been called "Reichswehr". With the loss of WWI, the Versailles treaty forbid Germany to have anything but a token army, about 100.000 strong, basically infantery only, which was still called Reichswehr.

In May 1935, the German government (the Hitler regime) started their program to give Germany an army of decent size again. The Reichswehr was renamed "Wehrmacht" and had nearly the size of the French army when WWII started in September 1939.
After the defeat in WWII the Allied Control Council passed a law formally dissolving the Wehrmacht on the 20th of August 1946, the official "death" date of this organisation.

After the ways of the USA and the UdSSR had parted after WWII, a military confrontation seemed quite possible. To be ready for it, both the US and the Sovietunion had their controlled parts of Germany create armed forces. For East Germany it was the "Nationale Volksarmee" or NVA. In West Germany these armed forces were founded officially on the 1st of April 1956, when the term "Bundeswehr" was introduced. Its creation was heavily critisized in Germany (East Germany included ;) ), but the deal between the Western Allies and Germany was: Creation of the West German army against a limited form of souvereignity.

In contrast to popular belief, held by many Americans (and Israelis...) Bundeswehr (and not US armed forces stationed in Germany) was the backbone of NATOs conventional defense from 1966 onward. (In the East it was different, the Red Army were more dominating compared to the NVA, which nonetheless would have played a significant part in any Soviet war plan). Bundeswehr was to an greater extent than any other army integrated into NATO structure. In the case of war it would have been commanded by SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe...always an American General)

After the Reunification of Germany in 1990, the NVA was officially dissolved, parts of it were integrated into Bundeswehr. First one was unsure how much of a threat the successor of the Sovietunion, Russia, would pose. But after the Russians went on with their economic suicide, the situation became less and less tense. Germany was quite happy to de-escalate the situation by severly cutting down the military budget.

But from the nineties on a rule that had been existed for decades "no german soldier on foreign soil" was broken. More and more Germany was encouraged to take part in international peacekeeping missions...or even invasions of Arabian countries. Bundeswehr, a home defense army only, was not designed for this. As a result, it is now restructured, to be more intervention capable...albeit with heavily emphazising the peace keeping aspect of it. I hope we get better soon.

[SHA]

Aiite thanks caleb for the quick reply :D and what the hell is sowjets anyway
:roll: is it a joke or sumthing :roll: :lol:

and that was a very nice read Kitsune, thanks for going into the details mate woot

[Dutchman2]

KITSUNE: Thanks for that post and historical explenation of the Bundeswehr and Wehrmacht :D . Thanks, I learned alot of it.

Greets,

Roger

[[AFSOC]]

The German and Canadian body armor looks very similar..

Anyone know if its the same ?

[ZeroPositive]

Someone told me the Canadian and German Body armour is the same??
anyway excellent photos.

[epc]

I also noticed, that the US soldiers are weaker trained

Do you mean physical conditioning, or military skills?

[Ratamacue]

I ask a Friend of mine (Infantry) and he said in a City-Fight the Bundeswehr beats the americans and french guys, becaus they do sometimes really stupid things. *lool*



Yes, but our small Dutch army kicked US asses also :D . Infact, almost everytime the US and the our army exercises together, we win woot ! Especialy in Hohenfels, we kicked the US OPFOR to pieces. The same when our Airforce is training with the Yanks...
The US forces works very slow compaired with European combat techniques. Most of because they have a person for every job to do, European soldiers can do more jobs and are less depended on the higher ranks.
The US is in his best when they are attacking with a massive force (shock & awe), but on smaller battle techniques like MOUT, they are slow and make faulds. I also noticed, that the US soldiers are weaker trained (please, I dont flame :oops: ), BUTTTT>>> There is no better Army Base than an US Army Base! In Germany or Bosnie; they have massive camps, and have a great kitchen woot :D !
Exercises are less indicative of capability than you think. I have nothing but respect for European militaries, as generally though they're small, they're highly trained and motivated. However, a great portion of the US military has combat experience now after the wars/occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. As for MOUT, there are very few military forces in the world that focus on it as heavily as the US (especially after Somalia).

Anyway, to sum up my thoughts, there's more to military capability than performance in exercises. Fortunately it's very unlikely we'll ever find out whether European militaries can kick the ass of the US or vice versa.

[iflu]

http://home.arcor.de/mountainbiker1983/HiBa2.jpg
This was my Hammelburg, last summer!
Was a lot of fun!

great pics, btw, what is the height of that??

[Dutchman2]

I had the oppertunaty to work and train a few times with US troops, and I noticed many differances. Ofcourse, compairing a small Dutch army with the mighty US army realy doesn't make any sense. But because we have a very small army, a simply soldier has more responcebility than the everage US soldier. We have to do more with less. I think the everage Dutch basic soldier (and also the everage German soldiers I worked with) is higher educated, and learnes more in their basic training and in the speciality training that follows, because the soldier can follow the class without any problems with learning. A big differance between the US and Dutch troops I noticed, is that a soldier of lance Corporal from the Dutch army can say against his NCO or LT that he makes wrong decisions and can bring in his own idea's about salving problems/ tasks, without the hazard of being punished or insulting the higher rank.
Thru, the US has so many combat experiance and learned so much from the faulds they made in tha past, a European army army simply can't reach that experiance. The US has kicked so many asses in the past, and will do in the future, combined with the massive force they have, they are the worlds #1 army :D .
BTW, I realy enjoyed working with the Yanks, and have some great memories of that time woot !

greets,

Roger