Posted on 05/27/2018 6:04:18 AM PDT by C19fan
After four humiliating years of occupation, the German retreat through the Netherlands towards the Reich caused an unusual degree of jubilation, disdain and harsh laughter among Dutch civilians. On September 4, 1944, the day after the British Guards Armoured Division drove into Brussels to wild rejoicing, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands had broadcast to her occupied country from London: ‘Compatriots – You know our liberation is coming.’ Three months after D-Day, the formerly invincible Wehrmacht, which had crushed the Netherlands in the summer of 1940, had been reduced to stealing bicycles to escape the Allied advance. Vehicles requisitioned for the German exodus included Red Cross ambulances packed with soldiers and their weapons, and even the odd omnibus.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Ike gets a great deal of blame here, IMO, for letting Monty talk him into this disaster, rather than focusing on securing the Scheldt Estuary and opening Antwerp.
Politics compelled Ike to give Monty his own show. In doing so, he he validated Patton’s estimation of Monty.
I loved the line from one of the d day movies wherein the nazi general staff were musing whom would lead the invasion. One general suggests it would be Montgomery and his superior chides him saying even Eisenhower is not that stupid!
And now Britain mandates that Islam take over without a shot.
He was attempting to rebuild his reputation
After his Dday failures.
In big picture allies failed to see value of
Antwerp for far too long.
I’ve read Anthony beavers the battle for Spain and his book on Stalingrad both Goodreads. Cornelius Ryan’s the last battle about the collapse of the reich was also very well written. When I get around to it I would like to read Anthony beavers book about Berlin in 1945.
Agreed. Ike generally did a competent if unimaginative job and he did manage the coalition pretty well but Market Garden was a big failure.
It could be argued pinching off the bulge would have been the better way to go instead of pushing the Germans back and that allowing Patton to close the gap and seal in two German armies in the Falaise Pocket would have been a better choice - yes even if there had been some “Friendly fire” incidents between Patton’s troops and the Canadian forces they were meeting up with. Market Garden however was the single biggest mistake. Clearing the Scheldt Estuary to get Antwerp’s port in action was by far the most important goal at that time.
That should have been written “the once invincible Wehrmacht...” After Stalingrad the German military lost every time. In Russia, in North Africa, in Sicily, in Italy, and everywhere in Europe after D-Day.
We would have been much better off if the more cooperative General Alexander had been appointed as the Brit top general. But Monty was too popular to shunt aside. Alexander was more concerned about winning the war than grabbing the spotlight.
I found it at Goodwill. Hardback, $1.00.
Oh, geez. Now I have ANOTHER book on my wish list.
Look at the retreat of the 9th and 12th armies from Berlin toward the Oder to surrender to the Americans. The 9th Army was virtually destroyed breaking out of the Halbe pocket, but whatever units survived joined the 12th Army and fought their way to the Oder to surrender to American forces.
Without air cover, terribly short of food, fuel and ammunition and hampered by refugees, they fought their through fresh Red Army divisions to reach the Oder.
I believe they suffered 30,000 casualties but inflicted another 50,000 on the Red Army.
On YouTube you can see German units crossing the remnants of a blown bridge to be disarmed by US units. They came under air attack from the Soviets and German flak units opened up across the river from the US forces, who did nothing to stop them.
“Market Garden however was the single biggest mistake.”
I don’t know about that. Certainly the battles at the Huertgen Forest and Monte Cassino were epic flustercucks along with Market Garden.
zI took my two boys to all three Market Garden battlefields in 2001. Also, they were moved by the 11-11-11 memorial to End All Wars when everyone whispered We Will Remember.
Ike was a political strategist, not a military strategist.
I was disgusted years ago to see Squadron (modelling catalog) consistently name the Soviet army as the one that defeated the NAZI war machine.
Yeah, the Brits and the Yanks did nothing. And where would the Russians have been without a couple thousand P-40s, four thousand P-39s, loads of Shermans, and all the rest of Lend-Lease? (Which was all really just a give away!)
Leftist propaganda infiltrates everything.
Yes. The Bulge. No one thought that possible.
For want of a kerosene can...
War is a series of calamities that result in victory.
Montgomery was neither. The failure to get Antwerp's port facilities into operation in September was the single greatest strategic blunder of the Western European campaign. An argument can be made that had supplies sufficient to maintain allied momentum been available, Huertegen and the Bulge would never have happened. Ike was the boss, and he was responsible.
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