Posted on 12/28/2014 6:53:44 PM PST by smoothsailing
I was thinking today how the British must have felt towards America for sitting out the war while the they were mercilessly attacked by the Germans. Clearly there was a little resentment and at the same time appreciation when the US entered the war and having the British spearhead the final push into Germany was justice served.
Good point. And there was an element of revenge involved. The Russians had suffered greatly at the hands of Germany and it was felt that it was reasonable to allow them some flexibility.
Also it was not just Americans in the battle. Field Marshall Montgomery was given ground command of all allied forces for the duration of the battle.
No, Montgomery was given a support role to the north. Patton and Hodges armies fought the battle.
Only about 200 British troops died in the battle vs 19,000 American dead.
Montgomery had very little to do with the battle. He didn't even show up at the meeting Eisenhower called to set the battle plan.
The Germans had a very effective propaganda radio program that mimicked the BBC. To divide and cause hard feelings between the British and Americans they broadcast that Montgomery had “saved the day”. The Americans were incensed and Churchill had to set the British side straight.
Battleground(1949) is a movie I watch every year. It tells the story of the Battle of the Bulge.
If Hollywood wants to do remakes of movies they should do some of the 1940s war movies.
“Montgomery was in fact the ground commander of all forces during the battle”
No, not true. Only on the north side of the salient.
Typical Brit crappola. The USA did not sit out the early part of the war. Lend Lease was in effect, our factories were gearing up. We escorted convoys halfway across the Atlantic. The Convoys were filled with all kinds of supplies.
We definitely were on a side. And I know its quaint today, but back then going to war just because England and Germany decided to was not anything MOST Americans were that hot to do.
And at the height of battle of Britain, we gave them 50 destroyers. The RN crews were astounded to find them busting at the seams with warm clothes, blankets, coffee, and foods they had scarcely seen since the war began.
It was an American unofficially flying the PBY that found the Bismarck. US crews flew the planes to England and then “unofficially” become copilots, “training” the Brit crews. An American got the DFC for that mission.
No, America did not leave Britain to struggle on their own. That’s a slander.
Like the other men of that era, my father kept most of his stories to himself, but he shared one that still gives me chills. On that day when the skies cleared, he said the men around him heard and even felt the sound before they understood its source. Then, suddenly, the entire sky filled with planes from one end to the other. He actually waved his arm across some imaginary horizon to add emphasis. And they were all flying in one direction. "I couldn't believe one country could build that many airplanes," he told me years later, still in awe (and he had no concept of the massive numbers flying over the Pacific at the same time). Then he paused in his story and shared a very personal moment with a son who rarely, if ever, heard anything personal from this man. "It was the most religious experience of my life," he said, looking far off and not at me."The word went out in forty-one, Uncle Sam's gonna get the big job done, We hired out at Willow Run, Way down the road... Punch in, punch out, make your time, Hurry with the turret boys, you're getting behind, The bombers roared low in the blacked-out skies, Way down the road." -- Craig Johnson
At it’s production height, the Ford factory at Willow Run was completing one B-24 bomber an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s how you fill a sky with planes.
It’s amazing how many planes (and tanks, and ships) were built in that few year period — and what planes (and tanks, and some of the ships) didn’t get destroyed were scrapped before 1950. Just the scrapping effort dwarfs a lot of activity done before and since. :’) Just combat planes, the US alone built 236,305, kind of a lot, really.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_aircraft_production_during_World_War_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_production_during_World_War_II
BOOKMARK
Only in America.
A moment in time forever remembered—now shared with many.
Thanks.
The Germans did not have the same high opinion of Rommel that was common on the Allied side.
The order was later commuted because of efforts by both governments to move past the war,
Politicians are too often politicians FIRST before they are Men or Americans.
That is not like actually fighting and losing machinery and American lives and at the levels of war.
And hind sight is probably 20/20 but it was definitely in our interest to be in the fight (even though we didn’t know it at the time).
Comparing our involvement to the British at the time is wrong. And clearly, it wasn’t going very well for the British with their cities being bombed and their civilians being killed. It was a desperate time for the Brits.
To equate our losses to the British prior to us entering the war is unfair.
Interesting.
It was and still is very impressive. When you get all Americans behind a task, you can do anything.
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