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....As it happened the British failed to take Caen on the first day but the constant pressure applied did force the Germans to divert its strongest forces to the Caen area allowing a U.S breakthrough as originally planned. But Eisenhower being unimaginative as he was kept his broad-front idea and wanted a British breakthrough which allowed the Germans to hold the entire Allied beach-head. The time held up in the beach-head could have been used capturing port facilities long before they actually did and Caen may not have been so devastated by fruitless attempts on it.
Once again, Ike failed to grasp the idea of strategy during the Ardennes Offensive - opting to push the bulge out of the Allied lines instead of encircling and destroying it. This led to the war dragging on because the German troops managed to escape to set up new lines on the Rhine and further into Germany.
And his greatest blunder was not taking Berlin; as Ike could only see two feet in front of his face, he had no idea of the bigger picture. Even Germany saw the Cold War coming, along with Patton, Montgomery and Churchill. If Ike had pushed to Berlin, as they so easily could have done then the political triumph of raising your flag above the enemies capital would have been achieved. This would have brought Stalin and his Soviet cronies down a few pegs as a Stars and Stripes above the Reichstag would have given the U.S the political strength to say they did all the work that won the war; just as the Soviet Union did. It would have also showed military strength to the East and may have eased the Cold War - if not completely eradicating it.
Ike liked to be strong on all fronts but decisive on none - and that's probably one of the many great blunders of World War II.
On Montgomery.
He had many, many faults but I think he is getting a worse press as time goes on. It's easy to accuse him of caution but there's an important factor to consider:
From late '44 the UK forces could only get smaller so one of his primary aims was to conserve manpower for the future wars ahead (Japan and possibly Russia)
On Montgomery.
He had many, many faults but I think he is getting a worse press as time goes on. It's easy to accuse him of caution but there's an important factor to consider:
From late '44 the UK forces could only get smaller so one of his primary aims was to conserve manpower for the future wars ahead (Japan and possibly Russia)
Not all of Eisenhower's mistakes were brought about through politics, the breakout in Normandy and the Germans Ardennes Offensive were non-political events when it came to planning strategy - all the politicians wanted was success at that time.
You could hardly call the Ardennes a 'mistake' on the part of Eisenhower. If so, you can lay it on everyone in the chain of command, failure of Ultra or other intelligence assets. The Germans must receive credit for a bold and carefully concealed plan, optimistic in expectations on part of Hitler.
"Fact - Montgomery did not succeeed in two critical commitments - Caen and Operation Market Garden. Patton failed at Metz. Lucas failed at Anzio and Mark Clark was only 'average' in the northward push in Italy - none of the Allied Commanders could touch Kesslering!"
Montgomery's failure to capture Caen on the first day wasn't a major setback in his strategy for the break-out. Once it was realised by Montgomery that the Germans were blocking him with their best units, the capture of Caen became unimportant. It was Eisenhower that ordered Montgomery to capture Caen, when it would have been wiser to hand the offensive to the U.S forces on the right which would have broke out and swept away the weak German opposition at their front and led to collapse of German forces around Caen to avoid encirclement. If Montgomery was allowed his strategy Caen would have been taken with ease.
Monty absolutely did NOT want to turn the initiative to the American commanders and held fast to the attack on Caen.. if you want to talk politics this is another item to chew on. It might not have been a setback in 'his' strategy' but it sure was to the overall timetable and plan... Caen was never going to be taken 'with ease' and that was expected from beginning
Operation Market Garden was a great plan but couldn't have been executed at a worse time. If Montgomery had heeded the warnings his intelligence was giving him, Market Garden would have never happened. But it was his failure and a large one at that, but it was bold and decisive plan that really was quite a fantastic idea.
Would have been a great idea except for the 10th Panzer that was allowed to escape from Normany, and 'found again' at Arnhem, the single elevated road that would only take one vehicle at a time, that everyone on the Dutch side knew about but Monty wouldn't listen because that ONE salient fact would kill the Plan - it would been 'bold and decisive' without those factors but stupid with them
Patton at Metz was terrible, and tried to push the blame on to his commanders when he was in the wrong all along. The great mobile genius made every mistake Great Britain did with armour in World War I. Splitting the armour up, slowing it down and on top of that trying to be strong on all fronts but inevitably being decisive on none.
You may recall he 'was slowed down' because the fuel priority went to Market Garden and he essentially was Stopped, not slowed down.
But Clark thought it appropriate to boost his ego and turned on the completely unimportant Rome, just so he could say he captured it. If he had sent his forces to east to block the Germans, the would have been no German resistance in Italy.
This is a statement beyond the pale - not about Clark but about 'no German resistance in Italy had he sent his forces east'. East of what? Rome? Explain why that would be the master stroke that somehow eluded Clark, Alexander, etc?
As to cutting off the Germans- didn't Monty have that job in Sicily for the 40,000 that got away? Anzio was supposed to be the magic bullet to 'cut them off' but anything else was brutal mountain to mountain fighting
The Grand Plan that the British seemed to have was never executed because of American presence; as we all know it's all politics. The Western Allied actions in North-West Europe were painfully slow and indecisive - we were lucky to be facing an exhausted and withered enemy. And as Eisenhower was in charge, it was his whole campaign blunder. He had Generals under him pushing for action, but the action never came. Which probably led to more loss of life.
If the Brits had their way we probably wouldn't have invaded France until 1948. Churchill fought us every step of the way and Monty supported his contention that June 1944 was 'too risky'. The entire thrust in Italy and the desire to strike in Balkans was Churchill's grand strategy to prevent USSR from gobbling up Eastern Europe. Eisenhower had the most impossible job possible, trying to keep all the huge egos intact, respond to his CiC and keep the Grand Alliance together - still the successes and failures are at his feet
The Soviets were decisive and knew how to administer a blow to break-through; they were far better prepared strategically and mentally to face off against the Germans than the Western Allies were in 1944.
Agreed on the mental part- human capital was not an issue for Stalin but was for Allies. I seem to have lost out on the strategic brilliance part of the battering ram approach, however?
The Bulge wasn't a great show of defence, the U.S lines were over-run and the German offensive only came to a halt because of resources and reserves were lacking. Had the Germans been well supplied and had reserves in waiting, they probably would have driven to Antwerp. The Ardennes Offensive showed that the Allied staff hadn't read any history books - because if they had they would have learnt to keep a strong defence even in the Ardennes forest for in June 1940 - only four years earlier - Germany had driven armour through the exact same forest to devestating effect. The Wehrmacht was already drained by then, it just needed to be finished off. The Ardennes Offensive gave the Germany Army in the West to us on a plate , but we merely brushed it aside.
....I don't think you can state with any authority 'it was more' due to WW1 than the realities of his situation (and brief)......
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It was all about reserves, the German commanders knew the U.S 1st would collapse, and they did. The defence was poor and ill equipped, if you wanted a defence that is worthy of credit just like at the Soviet defence at Kursk. And even with that the Germans almost broke-through.
Now we have another Brit expert lecturing on the myriad deficiencies of the American soldier and commanders.
I have to sit back and ponder why Europe (and UK) is not speaking either German or Russian. From your point of view it certainly had nothing to do with US contribution..