Posted on 12/21/2014 4:44:30 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Somewhere during the Bulge, doesn’t Monty start nagging Ike again about becoming the overall commander on the Western Front?
Correct, Monty overplayed his hand badly and came within an eyelash of being cashiered. Monty's loyal chief of Staff Maj Gen "Freddie" de Guingand saved his bacon after Monty intemperate remarks in a press conference in early January of 45.
More later, I hope :-) Regards
alfa6 ;>}
“I am a strong believer in prayer….Between the plan and the operation there is always an unknown. That unknown spells defeat or victory, success or failure….God has his part, or margin, in everything.” Patton saw God’s intervention in the unknown “breaks.”
Patton’s failings notwithstanding, it’s nice to see a top general exercising his faith, especially at such critical junctures. Looks like it worked.
Monty, and the British, did a decent job of keeping pressure on the German northern flank and preventing disaster. Hodges, or Bradley, may not have been up to the task. Monty had ego problems, but he was just a good enough general to do what was needed.
We were lucky to allies like Great Britain and men like Monty on our side.
Since Father O’Neill realized that Patton did everything over the top, he duly wrote something for the general, beginning piously: “Almighty and merciful Father, we humbly beseech thee, of thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for battle. Graciously hearken to us soldiers who call upon thee that, armed with thy power, we may advance from victory to victory and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies, and establish thy justice among men and nations. Amen.” - See more at: http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-bulge#sthash.2DCFLSJR.dpuf
Definitely more later!
Atkinson has quite a piece on that exchange.
IMHO I think that both Hodges and Bradley were up to the tasks in handling the Germans. However by putting Monty, (cough, gasp) in charge of the north side of the “Bulge” it would have made Eisenhower’s job much easier in getting British reinforcements if they would have been needed.
Back to work I must go...
Regards
alfa6 :>}
The sandbags and additional armor provided a measure of protection against panzerfausts and panzerschrecks but was utterly useless as protection against 75MMs and 88MMs.
getting British reinforcements if they would have been needed.
If Mary Louise is still alive she’s 86 years old.
The Brits still had an Army Group and were a very formidable force. They consisted of the 2nd Army (Brit), First Canadian Army (Canada), plus units from Poland, Dutch, Belgium and Czech.
While the Brits were having manpower shortages, this was in reinforcements and contingency operations, such as Greece. They also had limited ability to conduct large grandiose maneuvers like Market Garden, but the could and did put up a good fight.
Eisenhower's decision to place the U.S. First and Ninth Army under operational control of Monty was partly due to the distances involved from the two different sides of the Bulge. One of the side benefits of this arrangement thought Ike and Beetle Smith, was the fact that Monty would be more like to commit his reserves, if he was responsible for that part of the battle. Another consideration was Antwerp, which was in the 24th Army Groups zone. This was the port where most of the supplies would funnel into the battle zone.
In today’s summary of the German press release, Sertorious makes reference to the mechanization of the American forces to react quickly to the German offensive. Consider how quickly the Americans did respond to the attack, at Corps, Army and SHAEF levels. Here it is Day 4 and on the northern flank the Americans have already commited 1st Infantry Division to back up 2nd and 99th Divisions at Elsenborn Ridge, 30th Infantry and 3rd Armored have plugged the gap to the “Fortified Goose Egg” at St. Vith.
Speaking of St. Vith, the commitment of 82nd Airborne and the veteran 7th Armored allowed the Americans to hold the front and deny the Germans that critical road junction for the decisive initial days. The Germans clearly didn’t expect the Americnas to shift so many divisions so quickly. But that was foreshadowed in Normandy where our mobility made the Germans look slow.
So when you consider that the main German thrust was directed through St. Vith and across Elsenborn Ridge, and it’s been stymied, their main armored spearhead has been cut off and will soon be destroyed, the battle is already over and the Germans have lost.
While the Brits were having manpower shortages, this was in reinforcements and contingency operations, such as Greece. They also had limited ability to conduct large grandiose maneuvers like Market Garden, but the could and did put up a good fight.
The scale of Americcn logistic largesse was staggering. For example, the Germans came close to capturing the 1st Army’s warehouse that kept all of the army’s maps used for staff planning and for operational use by combat formations. There were only 1.5 million maps there.
Albert Seaton, in his seminal work on the war in the east “The Russo-German War” wrote an assessment of the Wehrmacht at the end of 1943. Given the widespread use of the small peasant pony and panje wagon for transport, Seaton concluded that by early 1944 the Wehrmacht was “one of the poorer armies in the world.”
I think of the Ardennes Offensive as being the World War 2 equivalent of Ludendorff’s March 1918 offensives on the western front. It’ s the last throw of the dice. Once it’ s clear this gamble has failed, you’ll see the Germans throw in the sponge.
My library doesn’t have that book, but they have “Horsemen of the Steppes,” so I requested that.
No doubt they had manpower shortages.
If you've read these posts over the last few years, you can see where Churchill is trying to shift manpower from different industries and services based on the situation in order to get more men into the army.
They were at it longer than us and they were also all over the world, like we were. The difference, we had a larger manpower pool than they had.
In the Bulge, they had a larger combat force closer than the US and able to affect the battle than we had. Monty could have launched an operation as audacious as Patton's, but he didn't have the stones Patton had.
Still, you have to fight the battles with the forces and circumstances as they come. It is easy to Monday morning quarterback what the commanders went through. The difference, we haven't been on the line for 6 plus months working 20 hour days and looking at the casualty list everyday, only to go to a subordinate and tell them to once more go into the breech!
Hat tip to Kipling.
My mistake, hat tip to Shakespeare’s King Henry V
http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/henryV/11/
Excellent point. The Atkinson books go into considerable detail about Eisenhower's work schedule, stress, and resulting health issues.
I hadn’t heard about the maps.
But I do remember that the Germans came within a hair’s breadth of getting 3 million gallons of fuel at Spa.
That could have greatly affected the course of the battle.
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