NAZIS DENT SALIENT, BRITISH DRIVE THEM BACK; EISENHOWER ASKS ALIENS IN REICH TO ACT NOW (9/26/44)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 9/26/44 | E.C. Daniel, James MacDonald, Sydney Gruson, Lindesay Parrott, Robert Trumbull, George Horne

[Hebrews 11:6]

Monty: "Because."

Ike: "What he said."

[henkster]

Now THAT is a very good question. If you want a candid answer from Ike, I suggest you use different Ouija boards to ask them. You don’t want those ghosts in the same room.

My guess for Monty is that he already cannibalized one division for replacements. He doesn’t want to cannibalize any more. The Empire is exhausted and Market-Garden was their last throw. In fact, 21st Army Group will use the two American airborne divisions to hold the Nijmegen salient for a while. They will need an American infantry division, the 104th, to clear the Scheldt north of Antwerp. I think they will need to borrow 7th Armored for a while, too, after it transfers north from 3rd Army. So from Monty’s standpoint, it wasn’t a choice. He couldn’t afford to do it.

My guess for Ike is that his candid answer would be that he isn’t going to let Monty have his way on an operation like this again. Not for quite a while, anyway. And other than clearing the Scheldt, Ike wasn’t going to let Monty use American soldiers to serve as 21st AGs assault troops. The Brits showed a pattern of that with the Canadians ans Aussies in the previous war.

[abb]

In retrospect, perhaps invading at Calais - the shortest route to Berlin - would have been the best plan of all. IMO, the overwhelming strategic superiority of US forces would have won the day regardless of German defenses.

Just a thought.

[BroJoeK]

---

September 26, 1944:

• "On this day of Yom Kippur, 1,000 young boys are assembled at Auschwitz in the presence of Dr. Josef Mengele.
  Any boy whose head does not reach a board Mengele has nailed to a post is set aside for gassing; See September 28, 1944."

"A Jewish policeman shakes the hand of one of more than 1,000 Jews who are about to leave the Westerbork, Holland, concentration camp in early September 1944.
Of the 1,019 Westerbork prisoners who arrived in Auschwitz in early September, 549 were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
Among those admitted to the camp on that day was Anne Frank, young author of the famous diary.
Killings would continue at Auschwitz for another five months, a fact that is particularly terrible because Allied aircraft had gained the ability to bomb the camp complex in the autumn of 1943."

---

[colorado tanker]

My guess for Ike is that his candid answer would be that he isn’t going to let Monty have his way on an operation like this again.

That's my guess too. Ike's strategy all along was take the Rhur and Saar and then advance on Berlin. Without its industrial heartland, Germany could not sustain warfighting for any significant length of time.

No more talk of Monty "dashing" to Berlin where he failed to dash to Arnhem.

[abb]

No more talk of Monty "dashing" to Berlin where he failed to dash to Arnhem.

..."with thunderclap surprise!" From the movie.

[colorado tanker]

LOL! I had forgotten that phrase was in the movie.

I found the screenplay. Check this out:

Montgomery or Patton? - Model, what do you think?

Patton. He is their best. Patton will lead the assault. I would prefer Montgomery... but even Eisenhower isn't that stupid.

[occamrzr06]

I think Ike gives Monty most of 1st Army during Bastone.

You’re right though, the Brits are plain out of troops. About this time the First Special Service Force (Combine American-Canadian unit and where Special Forces derives their lineage) is broken up. The main reason this force is disbanded is because the Canadians could not sustain their part of the Force. The Canadian portion are brought into the regular Canadian units and most of the Americans go to the Airborne units (FSSF were jump qualified).

An excellent book on the First Special Service Force is the Devils Brigade, by Adleman and Walton. A terrible movie about the FSSF is “The Devils’ Brigade”.

[colorado tanker]

Because Bradley’s HQ is south of the salient, Ike puts 1st Army in 21st Army Group during the Battle, but it goes back to 12th Army Group afterward. Ninth Army, however, stays with Monty until the end of the Rhineland campaign.

[occamrzr06]

From Atkinson’s “The Guns at Last Light....”:

The failure at Arnhem, Montgomery cable Brooks, “will not affect operations eastward against [the] Ruhr.” In this he was mistaken. The battle would be, as the historian Max Hastings wrote, “the last occasion of the war when Eisenhower unequivocally accepted a strategic proposal by Montgomery,” and the field marshal’s advocacy of a single exploitative thrust into Germany under his command seemed ever less credible. Even Montgomery now acknowledged the primacy of Antwerp. “The opening of the port,” he wrote in late September, “is absolutely essential before we can advance deep into Germany.” Whether that amounted to more than lip service remained to be seen.

...”There was a change of mood after Arnhem,” a British captain wrote. “One just didn’t feel the same. We were getting rather tired.”

[abb]

...”There was a change of mood after Arnhem,” a British captain wrote. “One just didn’t feel the same. We were getting rather tired.”

Well there it is. From that point forward, the United States can't use that excuse. WE can't get tired. From taxes, to the guarantors of freedom, to the citadel of free enterprise, we are told we have to suck it up. Work harder, longer, smarter - whatever it takes.

[colorado tanker]

Excellent quote. Sums things up nicely.

The Scheldt will not be cleared until early November and then must still be swept for mines. Even with lots of help for the Canadians it was a tough nut.

After Market-Garden, Monty reverts to his usual pace. By mid-December he will be on the Waal River and will have expanded his right flank to the German border.

This had to be devastating to the British Army and home front. A week or two ago the paper was full of stories expecting Market-Garden to roll across the Netherlands the same way the the armies had dashed across Northern France and Belgium. The War should be over by the end of the year! In just a week's time the advance has come to a halt and one of the finest outfits in the British Army has essentially ceased to exist. Yes, it would make one "tired."

[occamrzr06]

Excellent quote. Sums things up nicely

Yes it does sum things up nicely for the end of Market-Garden.

The next chapter, the last in the Market-Garden section sums up the future even better.

Teeming autum rain fell often, with implications for campaigning on the Continent as portentous as Montgomery's request for woolen drawers. "I am not looking forward to the winter war we have ahead of us," Gavin wrote his daughter. "I wear everything that I can get on, but feel as though I will never be warm again." In their very bones, they knew that there was indeed but one way ahead: the hard way.

[PAR35]

I have the movie on DVD. I dug it out and watched the first hour last night. They treated Model sympathetically when he took command.

[PAR35]

Hard to believe that those die-hard Germans were still bombarding Dover from Calais!

They weren't really die - hard. They were largely the dregs of the German army (and navy) poorly trained and supplied, with lousy morale by this point.

[colorado tanker]

"I am not looking forward to the winter war we have ahead of us," Gavin wrote his daughter.

Hang in there, General. I heard a rumor the 82nd will be going into theater reserve after more units arrive from England. Should have a nice, quiet Christmas.

[henkster]

Yeah, that “Theater Reserve” sounds like a real comfy gig. Maybe a nice French town like Rheims. They can just sit out a cold winter there, since there won’t be any airborne ops during the winter.

Or maybe Gavin knew more about the nature of war than we thought.

Interesting Gavin had a daughter with whom he could correspond. At 39, he is far and away the youngest division commander in the United States Army.

[occamrzr06]

They can just sit out a cold winter there, since there won’t be any airborne ops during the winter.

I think in Band of Brothers, Easy Company knew once they left England for Holland, they wouldn't be returning.

Gavin knew they same thing.

Airborne is only a temporary condition. Once the soldiers lands, he is Infantry.

[PapaNew]

So much for Monty’s “narrow front” strategy.

[Tax-chick]

We watched the first two hours last night. I was reminded of the Battle of the Bulge (the event, not the movie), because, when Michael Caine’s armored force failed to reach its objective early on the first day, the battle was a strategic failure. Same with the Bulge: when objectives weren’t reached in the first 24 hours, the operation was a strategic failure, even though the “shooting the cripples” phase went on for weeks after.

Very pretty weather for the movie version of Market Garden. I guess they didn’t want to get their expensive cast and equipment wet.