What if France had actually extended the Maginot line

[Henry IX]

Artillery is king. This is still as true as it was in WW1, WW2 and the Gulf War. The modern day US Army classify their artillery arm as both "Combat" and not "Combat Support" or "CSS". Reason for my previous question, as support roles is a very broad term, with many combat roles being more difficult to train and specialize than combat support and CSS roles.

Yerm answered this better than I can.

I don't think we are disagreeing on this, cooks are much more replaceable than an artillery spotter or skilled sniper. However, the German military system was highly dependent on non-combat specialists to act as force multipliers, such as the aforementioned artillery staff, and their loss did much to reduce the effectiveness of the German military.

 

[Grandpa Maur]

Germany did deliberately sacrifice the quality of it's army for immediate success in Barbarossa. The decision not to use (logistically prioritize) mobile roentgen devices for bone surgery meant a lot of frontline casaualties were (sort of) permanent, for example.

It was another short-term gamble, really.