Posted on 09/19/2019 9:50:52 AM PDT by Rummyfan
GROESBEEK, NETHERLANDS 09.18.2019 - Dutch re-enactors, dressed as Soldiers of 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, parachute out of a Douglas C-47 Skytrain to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden and begin the ceremony to present the Military Order of William to WWII veterans in Groesbeek, the Netherlands, Sept. 18th, 2019. This event is just one of the many events commemorating the largest airborne operation in history, Operation Market Garden, which was aimed at liberating the Netherlands and gaining a foothold into Nazi Germany by crossing the Maas, Waal, and ultimately the Rhine River. To this day, generations of Dutch remember the bravery and sacrifice of more than 41,600 troops from the US, UK, and Poland who together constituted the Allied Airborne Army. Commemorations honoring the Allied soldiers who participated in the historic airborne operation which liberated several Dutch towns take place Sept. 14-22, 2019. Photo by Spc. Ethan Valetski
The scene with the Russian General after the war ....
“Ok, I’ll drink with him, one sonofabitch to another.”
Bttt.
5.56mm
“Between Monty, Patton and DeGaulle, I don’t know how Ike didn’t wind up going nuts.”
Ike did comment that one commander gave him more headaches than the Germans. It just depended on which day as to which commander it was.
Ike and Bradley were notorious for picking Pattons brain when planning then presenting his ideas as theirs.
Bradley even commented to Ike that they should feel bad about their treatment of Patton. Ike replied that Patton was such a friend he wouldn’t mind.
Montgomery was shot through the body by a German sniper during WWI. He was not expected to live but after a year was well enough to rejoin his outfit.
Most would have not done so. He had a lot of character. My Father was a combat veteran of WWII and really like Montgomery.
After the disaster at Gallipoli, Churchill resigned and joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers...
http://scottishmilitarydisasters.com/index.php/titles-sp-26803/66-churchill-in-the-trenches
Ike’s strength. He could manage them, along with Churchill to meet the objective assigned to him.
What an amazing job he did, and those skills served him well as President, next to Reagan my favorite President. (Trump still has the potential, but I’ll wait until his second term is over before I pronounce him the best ever)
Patton was sure the operation would fail. It featured a very long supply line and many risks of enemy exposure.
Ike save Patton’s ass after the slapping incident. Once it hit the press, the call for Patton’s firing were loud and intense across the United States.Marshal told Ike it was his problem to solve. Ike could have sent him to the States. But Ike decide Patton was to valuable to lose.
Lots of folks say Ike wasn’t a good general. But his ability to manage the panoply of characters he had to deal was amazing. Maybe Marshal might have been able to do it but none of the other Generals in Europe could have pulled it off.
Lots of folks are idiots.
Ike was not a skilled general.
I did like one thing about him tho. He admired Robert E. Lee.
Have to agree.
“Ok, I’ll drink with him, one sonofabitch to another.”
Classic Patton. :)
His wife was a real pistol herself.
After competing in the Pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics Patton and his wife stayed in Europe for a couple of weeks to visit people.
At the end of their stay Mrs Patton began packing while George went to visit one last friend. When he returned he was carrying a sword he had badly wanted. He told his wife to put it in the large trunk on the bottom of the pile. She grabbed the sword and chased him around the room ending up with him perched atop the trunks yelling “calm down down Bea, I’ll pack the damned thing myself!”
Another occasion they were attending a formal military ball. George took his wife’s coat to the coat room and returned to find her astraddle an officer his hair firmly in her hands as she mercilessly pounded the mans head against the floor.
People learned real quick not to say detrimental things about George while Beatrice was in ear shot.
They were made for each other.
That's one heckuva combination.
The slapping incident had been taken care of long before it hit the press. Patton himself reported it to his superiors. Ike contacted Marshall and they decided to take care of it administratively.
One of the slapped soldiers was absent from his unit without permission. The other was known to be a slacker and malingerer.
A reporter in D.C. was reportedly pissed at the Roosevelt administration for dumping one of his friends who was a communist sympathizer and closet homosexual. To cause a ruckus this reporter set about leaking the incidents. The politicians couldn’t help themselves, they rushed to condemn Patton.
The father of pvt Bennett, one of the slapped men, stated that it was in the record and the army should let Patton get back to winning the war.
Walter Bedell Smith, Ike’s CoS, once told Eisenhower “Ike, get over yourself. You didn’t make Georgie Patton. Georgie Patton made YOU.”
That doesn’t sound like Bedell Smith. He and Patton literally hated each other.
Patton left orders that Bedell Smith not attend his funeral.
Montgomerys problem was that he took himself much too seriously.
If the Germans had been able to resupply Rommel in North Africa he would have kicked Monty’s butt and kept it kicked.
Due to German supply problems Monty was able to wear the Afrika Corp down to nothing.
Any time Montgomery met resistance he slowed down. Half of the German army was able to escape through the Falaise gap because Monty drug his feet.
Montgomery had a poor attitude towards American troops throughout the war.
“That’s one heckuva combination.”
Ain’t it though!
“That doesn’t sound like Bedell Smith. He and Patton literally hated each other.”
There was not one iota of love lost between them.
Even worse than the Patton/Montgomery lovefest.
From what I read Ike had been particularly bad about discounting the commanders under him, even to the point of being dismissive of his own staff.
I believe that it happened after Pattons death and funeral.
Bedell Smith had just had enough of Ike for a while and needed to shut him up most likely.
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