Thank you, Johnny L.A, that does sound more like I remember. In particular, the use of the inferior French weapons prone to jamming, especially from mud and dirt. And the idea of reserving the superior weapons so they did not fall into German hands. Perhaps the notion of WWI spreading from Europe was more reasonable/plausible or at least less easily dismissed. I mean, there was no precedent for the level of WWI, so in theory, it could have spread to the US, right?
So conflating WWI with WWII seems most likely. Hey, what’s a memory for if not misfiling things for later recall?