"...It would be interesting to compare the range scores of German Army recruits with those of US Army recruits. I'm sure that the Germans trainers must have had a more difficult task teaching marksmanship ..."

At least by the time we got into France they may have stopped. My old boss who carried a carbine and radio through Italyicon, France, Belgiumicon and Germanyicon, said one day that the German marksmanship was so bad that they stopped worrying unless there was an active MG42 in the area.

In his case his wound was from Willie Peter and an 88, not an 8 mm.