Comments by "Bullet-Tooth Tony" (@Bullet-Tooth-Tony-) on "TIKhistory" channel.

  1.  @davemac1197  "Anyone with any military knowledge will know that detailed planning is done by the units that undertake operations, and Army Group commanders like Montgomery only devise the strategic plan, not the operational and tactical planning done by the lower formations." This is a very good point and it also applies to the controversial Goodwood and Caen battles planned by Dempsey and his subordinates not Montgomery.
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  2.  @davemac1197  On another note I would love to hear about more the British success in Operation Bluecoat, there's too much focus on Goodwood and Villers bocage.
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  3. The British 6 pounder anti tank gun knocked out 57 tanks and armoured vehicles on kidney ridge.
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  4.  @bigwoody4704  "until the GI's came 3,500 miles across the Atlantic to do it for them" Ahh yes and came across with the Royal Navy who supplied what? 80% of all assets on D Day. The whole Naval force was commanded by a British Admiral. And of course the whole D Day planning, research, diversionary tactics, reconnaissance and delivery was entirely BRITISH. And it was a British Gunnery Officer who re-directed fire onto the cliff emplacements when he saw the slow progress being made by the brave Americans on that beach. Looks like the GI's needed a helping hand.....
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  5.  @bigwoody4704  Perhaps you have not heard of reverse lend lease? Britain and her empire provided military bases to America, also food, clothes and other war materials such as planes and patrol boats, which helped patrol American waters when the U-boats attacked American coastal waters with the wolf packs. It was an allied effort, that's the whole point of allies, so please cut the superiority crap, it's disrespectful to everyone who died for the Allies.
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  6. @chiron6699 I know what you mean. It's a shame about Ritchie's leadership at Gazala because he was later given command of a division in France and served successfully as commander of the 52nd Division during the campaign in NW Europe. If only Richard O Connor was at Gazala.
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  7. If the reports about the Panzers had been wrong and XXX Corps had managed the link up in time, this would probably be hailed as a brilliant maneuver that knocked months off the war. All the things people point to and criticise would be forgotten, the same way they are in so many other operations in WW2. Plenty of other battles have had their share of cock-ups, errors of judgement, stupidity and plain incompetence, but had a positive result, the Allies simply had rotten, luck at Arnhem as Napoleon pointed out a lucky General is preferable to a competent one.
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  8. If you actually looked up his background, you would find that Monty's father was a preacher in Tasmania, and never went to University. Far from an Aristocrat. This Aristocrat nonsense is just a stereotype from Black Adder. 🤦‍♂ The most capable commanders that served in the British Army usually came from humble backgrounds. Bill Slim, often argued as the best British general of WW2? Highest education was grammar school, father was a failed businessman, never went to University. Richard O'Connor - Father was a soldier, never went to University. Brian Horrocks - Father was a Doctor in the Army, never went to University. Harold Alexander - father was an Earl, never went to University.
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  9.  @barrettcarr1413  Yes Tobruk and Milne Bay.
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  10. If Richard O Connor was not captured and his forces not diverted to Greece, there's no way Rommel would have taken Tobruk.
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  11.  @marklivingstone3710  The problem is no Market Garden means a meat grinder like the Hurtgen Forest.
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  12. The Russians had it worse in Ukraine their columns were completely bombarded by drones and air power, the British on the other hand moved 50 miles to one of their objectives in 3 days despite a few ambushes on the advance.
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  13.  @FromPovertyToProgress  Yes Brian Horrocks and Pip Roberts had an opportunity to do it when they rapidly moved up towards Antwerp but were halted sadly. The cost of following "orders" instead of excersising initiative/ mission command.
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  14.  @FromPovertyToProgress  Yes plus the assault on Brest should've been cancelled.
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  15. "There is a reason they're called ORDERS gentlemen. I simply can't imagine an American, German or Soviet officer doing this in an overall advance." Rommel's in-fighting with other German and Italian senior officers during WW2 makes the Brits squabbles seem quite tame affairs 😂and don't even get me started on Mark Clark in Italy.
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  16. @1507421 "The British military could not defeat the French," Literally drove the French army out of Egypt, Portugal and Spain, invaded Southern France and then crushed Napoleon in Belgium.
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  17.  @robinsattahip2376  Still had less casualties than any of Bradleys operations.
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  18.  @DovahFett  Wellington is another great logistician, moved his armies through 5 countries ( Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium) and never lost a battle to Napoleon.
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  19.  @prof_kaos9341  Just found it, cheers buddy!
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  20. @evinoshima9923 Is that what Hollywood told you? Monty was urging the Poles and Canadians attacking the gap to advance as quickly as possible, it was Bradley who refused to let Patton try and close the gap from the other flank. And when exactly did Patton move fast in September 1944 when he was bogged down for 3 months at Metz? British forces advanced 350 miles in six days, it took Patton 2 weeks to advance 60 miles after Cobra.
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  21. People keep going on about Antwerp but have forgotten something. After the bridge at Arnhem was to be taken, the next goal was for the British 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division to land, and secure the territory to the north of Holland (Apeldoorn/Flevoland), which would cut off the German 15th Army and free up the Scheldt for Antwerp to be secured by the Allies.
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  22.  @charlesjermyn5001  He suffered only 13,000 losses, while Rommel lost over 73,000 men, 500 tanks and 254 artillery guns so who had it worse then? What about Market Garden?
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  23.  @LA_Commander  Market Garden was given limited priority. Had XXX corps had better support on it's flanks it wouldn't have had to detach the Guards and the 50th division to defend the highway and beat off attacks by German units. This again goes back to Monty's disagreement with Ike, he wanted support from Bradley's forces, as the British and Canadians didn't have enough corps to simultaneously support Market Garden, clear the Scheldt and invest the channel ports that were still occupied by Germans. The fact that he even proposed to allow Bradley to command the ground operation shows how important he felt it was to have ONE Thrust, and not to have Bradley and Patton to waste troops in other efforts (ie - Metz & Hurtgen forest) Market Garden should have been properly supported by 5 corps, likely 2 British and 3 American.
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  24.  @bigwoody4704  Bradley, Patton and Devers supplies came from the organisation known as COMZ , which was commanded by John Clifford Hodges Lee . The British and Canadian armies had their own supply trains. The American supply system had severe problems, they'd lost their mulberry harbour in storms and were compensating by using DUKWs and other stop gap measures over the open beaches and were actually doing quite well at it. But they were inland which meant a long supply chain, every truck has to go dozens, possibly hundreds of miles to make its delivery which in turn needs mechanics, admin, fuel and resupply points for those trucks. So you supply the men who move the supplies to supply the men who move supplies to the men who fight. The point was that all three forces were starving for supplies which allowed the previously broken German army to pull back and regroup into a fighting formation aided by the American defeat in the Huertgen forest. Montgomeries plan with Market Garden was to divert mediocre supplies to one force so they could make a dash forward and break into Germany before they could regroup. It didn't work out. Allied supplies weren't that great in Europe, fortunately the Germans barely had any supplies at all because their own supply lines were being shredded daily or diverted to three different fronts.
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  25.  @BobSmith-pn2yo  Montgomery was correct that neutralizing Caen would effectively cut off all the Germans towards the beach heads, rendering Cherbourg practically useless. Even an attack on Caen would force the Germans to redeploy and rethink their strategy.
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  26.  @matthewgabbard6415  The Germans didn't have air superiority or enough supplies at the time.
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  27. "Man for man the average German and Italian soldier was far, far superior to the average British soldier in North Africa…" That wasn't the case in Operation Crusader, Alam Halfa, El Alamein twice, Medinine and the Mareth Line. It was the Germans and Italians who suffered more casualties against the British in all of these battles listed.
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  28.  @JohnRodriguesPhotographer  It wasn’t a total failure. Over 50 miles of German held territory was taken. The towns of Eindhoven and Nijmegen were liberated. It protected the only port taken intact, Antwerp. It prevented the Germans from operating V rockets from that part of holland. it isolated a whole German army. Troops from Nijmegen turned East into Germany. The Market Garden salient was a buffer, one of its prime objectives. Proving it’s worth when the Germans rammed through through US lines in the Bulge. It stood between the advancing Germans and the German 15th Army. It prevented any German attempt to re-take Antwerp directly. The Germans had to try and get to Antwerp the long war round via the Ardennes in December. Market Garden prevented that vital German link up with the 15th Army. Keeping the 15th isolated was a real part of the operation. The salient was vital and proved its worth. The most direct and easiest route to Antwerp was via Venlo. It would have been easier for the Germans to go via Venlo from the Ruhr area but the British were in their way. Going through the Ardennes was one third longer at least in more difficult terrain, for an army desperately short of fuel the extra miles mean a lot, as was proven. They could go through Venlo if they liked but the British in the Market Harden salient between the Germans and Antwerp would have seen the build up and been prepared. The Germans refrained from attacking directly through British defended front lines after 1943. They avoided it and chose to attack through American lines instead. General Blummentritt said the British were next to impossible to dislodge once they were ensconced in defence but the Americans were prone to not defend so stubbornly. Market Garden almost certainly blocked an easier routed German counter attack on Antwerp The reason it wasn’t a 100% success can be largely laid at the feet of Lieutenant General James Gavin of the US 82nd Airboune Division who failed to take the Nijmegen bridge immediately. I recommend reading ‘Lost at Nijmegen’ by Poulsson. The biggest mistakes historians make is to glorify and narrow mindedly concern themselves with Arnhem and Oosterbeek. The Allies were stopped in the south just north of Nijmegen- that is why Arnhem turned out as it did. SS Major-General Heinz Harmel, 1987
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  29. "To show just what I mean all u need do is look what happen with the break out from Normandy and later in Belgium and then the Bulge. Monty never did learn" I disagree. Look at the 11th Armoured division and the Guards Armoured divisions who made the fastest advances of all the Allied armies driving 350 miles in four days to Antwerp and Amiens. Monty's pursuit towards the Seine and Antwerp in late August/September can be seen as the equivalent of Patton's Cobra rout. One can also argue that the British and Canadians faced far more German divisions in France than Patton ever did.
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  30. "We also saw how slowly Monty reacted to the invasion of the Bulge." After Eisenhower got in contact 4 days after the Germans launched their attack on the 16th December, Monty was already down there meeting with US troops of the 9th and 1st army by the 19th December preparing for counter measures in the North, that's hardly reacting slow.
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  31.  @georgesenda1952  That's a myth. Patton was already at a standstill long before the planning for Market Garden had even started. Don't buy into what you've heard in Hollywood films like the 1970 film Patton because it's not historically accurate. Quote Patton finally began receiving adequate supplies on September 4, (two weeks before MG) after a week’s excruciating pause” - Harry Yeide, Patton the German View Market Garden only had priority in extra supply transport laid on. It didn’t take away any actual supplies from any US army. Nor did Market Garden stop all operations on the western front. Patton’s 3rd Army was still trying to take Metz and US 1st Army began its Hurtgen Forest campaign on September 19th, 2 days after Market Garden began. The US 1st Army offensive in the Hurtgen Forest and Aachen in October 1944 used FOUR TIMES as many men and supplies as the ground element of Market Garden, which wasn’t even a full 2nd British Army offensive which only involved a single corps. Quote “ It was commonly believed at Third Army H.Q. that Montgomery's advance through Belgium was largely maintained by supplies diverted from Patton. (See Butcher, op. cit., p. 667.) This is not true. The amount delivered by the ' air-lift ' was sufficient to maintain only one division. No road transport was diverted to aid Montgomery until September 16th. On the other hand, three British transport companies, lent to the Americans on August 6th " for eight days," were not returned until September 4th.'“ Chester Wilmott, The struggle for Europe 1954.
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  32.  @georgesenda1952  Patton's supplies were coming from the organisation known as COMZ, which was commanded by possibly the most idiotic general on any side during WWII (one J. C. H. Lee). The British and Canadian armies had their own supply trains, which for the most part were more efficient.
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  33.  @phillipmiller1247  It was not the narrow front. The narrow front proposal of Monty would have entailed a 125 mile wide advance with 40 allied divisions in a big left hook. Market Garden took place while Ikes Broad front advance was still moving forward since all the attacks in the Hurtgen forest and Lorraine took place in the exact same month.
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  34.  @phillipmiller1247  You didn't read my comment properly, the Narrow front proposed in August to Ike as shown above by TIK was NOT Market Garden.
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  35.  @phillipmiller1247  Market Garden was an entirely different plan.
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  36. "The final point on Market Garden's destination - this was Nunspeet on the Zuider Zee coast, and not Arnhem for the reasons already explained. TIK's drawing of the Market Garden corridor in green, with the right flank beyond Arnhem following the River Ijssel is exactly right." Yes, the plan as executed called for the 52nd division to land, and secure the territory to the north (Apeldoorn/Flevoland), cutting off Holland and the German 15th Army.
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  37.  @davemac1197  It's funny how the subject of Antwerp always pops up and the idea that it was disregarded by Monty, even though the next phase of Market Garden was to advance up toward the Zuider Zee and surround the German 15th army holding it, making the job of taking the ports easier for the Canadians.
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  38.  @bigwoody4704  Rommel was only able to get away because he ran away leaving 95% of his heavy equipment behind. The initial advance of the Eighth army was held up because the vast bulk of the army was stuck behind a 5 mile deep minefield with only a couple of narrow lines through it.
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  39.  @bigwoody4704  And how many of Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps are left after El Alamein? According to Historian Matthew Cooper, just 5,000 made it out of Libya Quote "When the Panzerarmee arrived, the Afrika Korps had only 5,000 men, 35 tanks, 16 armoured cars, 12 anti-tank guns, 12 field howitzers" "
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  40.  @bigwoody4704  The Afrika Corps lost 111,000 out of 116,000 (and Italian allies) either killed, captured or evacuated as wounded from Libya. I would hardly call that "getting away"
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  41.  @NankerPhelge65  Overrated
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  42.  @johnlucas8479  Monty had no authority or command over 1st Airborne Army. Quote "Market was an Air Force plan. It followed the Army's request but not the commander's intent. It was never planned at 21st Army Group or (British) 2nd Army, and was delivered complete to those HQ on Sept 15th. The plan violated the original intent of the ground commanders as they had designed and understood the plan." Leaving the bridges for later capture was a fatal idea ." Operation Market Garden - The campaign for the Low Countries Reference - page 45-46
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  43.  @lyndoncmp5751  Certainly a better strategist and logistician than Rommel, Rommel was better in the tactical and operational department.
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  44.  @bigwoody4704  " Montgomery had 6 months to plan CAEN and got stopped on the beach then in town for 43 days" Canadian Historian OTDMilitaryHistory has debunked that go on on to "Was Saving Private Ryan right to blame Monty?"
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  45. @thomasfsan To be fair though Thomas, the British Empire did have successes along the way too. As TIK mentioned, Operation Compass in the beginning. Then you've got Operation Crusader, El Alamein, Medinine, the Mareth Line to Operation Totalize, Operation Charnwood, Operation Plunder, Operation Veritable to the Battles of Kohima and Imphal etc.
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  46.  @thomasfsan  I would argue that the Red army took a lot worse. Kiev 1941, 2nd Kharkov, Third Kharkov etc whats that like 1 million Red army casualties including prisoners taken by the Germans.
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  47.  @nickdanger3802  Except that Monty didn't decide that the British Airborne would land at Arnhem, he merely designated which bridges he needed seized and Major General Paul Williams of Brereton's Airborne Army did the planning. Monty had no authority or command over 1st Airborne Army. Quote "Market was an Air Force plan. It followed the Army's request but not the commander's intent. It was never planned at 21st Army Group or (British) 2nd Army, and was delivered complete to those HQ on Sept 15th. The plan violated the original intent of the ground commanders as they had designed and understood the plan." Leaving the bridges for later capture was a fatal idea ." Operation Market Garden - The Campaign for the Low Countries, Autumn 1944: Seventy Years On by John Buckley, Peter Preston-Hough Reference - page 45-46
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  48.  @Jameson-d8x  Apparently an opportunity might have been missed. Quote "The city and port fell to the 11th Armoured Division in early September, but Montgomery halted ... Corps for resupply short of the wide Albert Canal to the north of the city, which consequently remained in enemy hands.[94] Horrocks regretted this after the war believing that his corps might have advanced another 100 miles (160 km) with the fuel available.[95] Although some doubt this could have been achieved without delays,[93]*it is now known that...Corps was opposed by only one German division , although Allied forces were unaware of this at the time.[96] The pause allowed the Germans to regroup around the Scheldt River, and by the time the Allies resumed their advance, the First Paratroop Army (General Kurt Student) had arrived and set up strong defensive positions along the opposite side of the canal"* Quote "the 11th Armoured Division could have advanced 18 Miles further North to the base of the South Beveland Peninsular, thereby preventing German movement to and from the Peninsular. As it was, no such order was given and consequently Von Zangen was able to extract the remnants of his Fifteenth Army from the pocket around Brekens by ferrying them across the Schelde, mostly by night and then moving along the South Beveland Peninsular and from there into Holland."
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  49.  @flyoptimum  "The Delay at Caen is widely cited as a frustration" Indeed, he was his own worse enemy in that regard, but the only official phase line that Monty and Bradley would agree to before the invasion was to be on the Seine by D+90, they managed it with days to spare 😎 It's also worth pointing out that the reason Caen wasn't taken on the first day had a lot to do with the fact that a German panzer division (21st) attacked the troops from Sword beach heading towards the city, the Allied forces beat off the attack, but it gave the German's enough time to reinforce the defences around the city with the majority of their panzer divisions. Market Garden fell far short of expectations, but it wasn't a total failure as it advanced the front in that sector by around 90 miles and inflicted almost twice the number of casualties on the German's than what the Allies suffered. It was certainly a better operation and gained more ground than Bradleys Hurtgen Forest campaign.
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  50.  @bigwoody4704  Well it did do something knocked Italy out of the war and prevented Rommel from linking up with Army Group South. Montgomery devised the '5 Beach' landing concept, Ramsay and Leigh Mallory provided the Air and Naval assets.
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