They do this everyday at sunset, rain or shine, to remember the 48 American soldiers were killed in crossing the Waal river at Nijmegen.
Posted on 09/21/2019 6:58:44 PM PDT by aspasia
Thanks for those interesting thoughts and insights.
Actually, they do.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/reliving-vietnam-war-woods-oregon
https://tmd.texas.gov/vietnam-reenactment-brings-memories-history-to-life
One problem with commemorations in place at the battle site (well, area) is that the battle has become a major German neo-Nazi touchstone and debate point.
Montgomery was the last British commander in Africa after a series of ineffectual commanders who had been unable to stop Rommel(my wife’s maiden name) and The Afrika Korps. The loss of Tobruk was the final straw for Churchill. He knew a change was needed. Another British general, senior I believe to Monty was General Alexander another character in himself but the men who comprised Britain’s top generalship at that time were men of the British upper classes, most of them possessed of that classes arrogance. This attitude, to me anyway, always characterized relations and perceptions between American commanders and British ones. The British tended to view Americans as rubes, amateurish or brash and inconsiderate of ‘’the game we’re playing here’’. Americans for their part tended to view Brits as class ridden snobs with ‘’no balls’’.
OK, well, they probably also reenact the Charge of the Light Brigade, another British tragedy. But I don’t think reenacting politically corrupt military adventures is a good idea.
They probably reenact GWBush’s Iraq invasion also but that is another politically-corrupt adventure costing us the lives of many brave young men and women.
Lessons to be learned from all but not in reenacting such IMO.
When celebrating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Belgium, I met small group of the Arnhem survivors.
Also met some that week who were at Nijmegen.
If anyone goes to Nijmegen, this is a must see:
They do this everyday to honor those who served with the 82nd who were killed during the liberation.
http://www.sunsetmarch.nl/en/welcome/
Charge of the Light Brigade is not re-enacted that I am aware of, but it is remembered and still commemorated in some small ceremonies. The 1990s Iraq invasion and war is not yet re-enacted that I know of, but you do seem to be missing some of the major points of remembering, reenacting and commemorating even failures.
1. Honor those who served and those who fell in doing so, no matter how poor their political or military leaders.
2. In the case of failures, to remember them and to use them as important examples of ‘what not to do’. And then hopefully never do that again - in fact, this is possibly more important than remembering victories.
“Montgomery after Africa is someone you increasingly really don’t want to be anywhere near. Or worse, under, with the decay of his effectiveness and increase in arrogance starting in Sicily. Fortunately for everyone else in the Allied forces, Market Garden was rightly the end of *that* particular crapshow of a policy and a general from the British.”
I honestly think he was trying to out Patton, Patton.
And IMO if Patton was in overall command of Market Garden it would have been a successful operation.
How do you commemorate taking another nation's ground at too high a cost two generations after said nation was given back possession? Kind of awkward, I guess.
I disagree. There wasn’t any Allied general who could have made the Market Garden plan work. It was too complex, too fragile and did not have real provision for partial failure or even delays.
The best Patton might have done is to come up with a completely different plan and execute it. Market Garden itself isn’t winnable.
It’s not like we didn’t try with Iwo Jima: https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/70IWO
I guess my point of course is don’t glorify the tragedy, but honor those brave souls who died in that tragedy.
WW1 cured most Brits of thinking war was glorious. The Light Brigade is commemorated these days not for the glory of the action (at least not by most Brits I know) but for the useless waste. The Brits have done a lot of cultural re-evaluation since having two giant wars in the past century-plus, not all of it bad.
Nevertheless, the Brits by-and-large are stuck in Socialist thinking which puts them in the political/legal/social backwaters. It also allows that deadly aloof leadership to continue as it does in this country with mainly the Left.
Faith and freedom from leadership on down makes a nation and a people strong. Man-centered socialism/government command-and-control makes a nation and a people weak and dependent.
They do this everyday at sunset, rain or shine, to remember the 48 American soldiers were killed in crossing the Waal river at Nijmegen.
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