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HI STEVE,
Yes, and of course creating 'elite' units is not a perfect arrangement.
As Field-Marshall Slim once said (a different subject, and war but the same logic)
" .......was undoubtedly to lower the quality of the rest of the army, especially of the infantry, not only by skimming the cream off it, but by encouraging the idea that certain of the normal operations of war were so difficult that only specially equipped 'corps d'elite' could be expected to undertake them. Armies do not win wars by means of a few bodies of super-soldiers but by the average quality of their standard units........the level of initiative, individual training and weapon skill required in, say, a commando is admirable, what is not admirable is that it should be confined to a few small units. Any well trained infantry battalion should be able to do what a commando can do. This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier, who does not wear it's green hat with a bunch of oak leaves in it, should be expected to climb a tree" !!!!
Field Marshall Lord Slim, 'Defeat into Victory'
Perhaps a similar mindset resulted in a reduction in the abilities of the 'run of the mill' Jastas etc.
Almost certainly the scorn and contempt heaped on those in high command between the war's (in britain) worked it's baleful influence on those having to command in W.W.2---and ---dreading to make mistakes of their own, made some that --they themselves---should have known better!
But---in the end--'all came right' in both wars----just lot's of people had to die getting there.
Dave.
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