Wasn't the general idea of a conscript army in the days before machine guns that in an actual shooting war most of the conscripts were poor soldiers but easy targets (hence cannon fodder) so the real soldiers who were quick on their feet and made use of cover could get on with the battle while the fodder got shot?
During D-day on the beach approach my father's crew were engaging targets with the Oerlikons while the Canadians were supposed to be engaging targets with their tanks. But, having no experience of an actual shooting war, some of them were actually reluctant to fire. As my father said, they were "too nice". It was perhaps fortunate that many of the enemy weren't Germans but Eastern European conscripts who didn't much like exposing their positions by firing back.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
