The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Race to Messina (Jul-Aug 1943) - Feb. 23rd, 2005

American History Magazine | Eric Ethier

[snippy_about_it]

How on earth did you do that?

That's not my hand. Sam's just teasing. The jays eat peanuts off my deck railing but I've not tried to feed them. Maybe now I will. I'll sit on the deck with them in my hand and see if they'll even think about coming close. I'll let you know.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks Phil. Interesting read.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[stand watie]

GM, snippy, et.al.

sn*wing like H here! YETCH!

free dixie HUGS,duckie/sw

[Iris7]

Personally I think 95% of Patton's criticisms of Eisenhower are fair, and that Bradley wasn't much. Eisenhower was YELLOW.

To be fair with Eisenhower, though, whenever the British thought they were getting disrespected General Marshall would get a call from the Commander in Chief. The reason Marshall picked Eisenhower for his job is that he "could get along with the British". This is simply the sort of man Eisenhower was (MacArthur was correct about Eisenhower, as he was about most things). Roosevelt would have sacked Marshall if Marshall had backed Patton instead.

When Eisenhower said "What can I do?" he was totally serious. He was indeed actually powerless. A "Supreme Commander in Name Only", to coin a phrase.

The British - American military organization had a number of successes due to the difference between Americans and British. The first thing in tactics is to "hold by the nose and kick in the ass", that is, to reinforce moving ahead and using stalled attacks as holding actions. Messina, the Normandy breakout, and the final attack into the Reich all worked the same way, where the Germans saw the British attack as important, as the center of gravity, as the Schwerpunckt, and not the possible American attack, making possible a high speed American breakout. You have to mass your defensive power where you think it wise, since you cannot defend everywhere. Defending everywhere means defending nowhere, as they say. Just ask Jeff Davis, who lost his war trying to defend everywhere. So the Germans massed against the British in critical battles, too bad for them.

Same thing in the Pacific with New Guinea and Guadalcanal, Army and Marines. There the center of gravity shifted so often (in Japanese eyes) that they lost confidence and became indecisive. Too bad, tsk, tsk.

Montgomery timed the counter attack at the Bulge in a masterly fashion. Montgomery was actually quite good on defense, likely learned that in WWI. He was in the March 1918 defense, very rough, war was almost lost. El Alamein was a defensive battle, for instance.

[PsyOp]

Late addition to an old thread:

"The primary mission of armoured units is the attacking of infantry and artillery. The enemy’s rear is the happy hunting ground for armour. Use every means to get it there." - General George S. Patton, Letter of Instruction. 3 April, 1944.

Patton - War as he knew it.

[bandleader]

Good Morning,SAMWolf!The Drew Pearson A**HOles of George S.Patton Jr.'s day are not dissimilar from the A**Holes of George W Bush's day!!!